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THE BOOK OF JOB 

THE POETIC PORTION 

VERSIFIED, WITH DUE REGARD TO THE 
LANGUAGE OF THE AUTHORIZED VER- 
SION. A CLOSER ADHERENCE TO 
THE SENSE OF THE REVISED 
VERSIONS, AND A MORE 
LITERAL TRANSLATION 
OF THE HEBREW 
ORIGINAL 

WITH AN 

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 

ADVANCING NEW VIEWS 
AND 

EXPLANATORY NOTES 

QUOTING MANY EMINENT AUTHORITIES 
BY 

HOMER B. SPRAGUE, Ph.D. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY, AFTERWARDS 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA AND 

LECTURER IN DREW THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 

EDITOR OF MANY ANNOTATED MASTERPIECES 

OF CHAUCER, SHAKESPEARE, MILTON, 

GOLDSMITH, SCOTT, IRVING, 

CARLYLE, ETC. 




BOSTON 
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1913 



■g %\*r\ { * 



. v.fe 



Copyright, 1913 
Sherman, French &» Company 



t 

©CU350152 



TO 

THE ALUMNI OP 

the UNIVERSITIES op 

YALE, CORNELL, and NORTH DAKOTA, 

IN WHICH, RESPECTIVELY, THE AUTHOR WAS 
STUDENT, PROFESSOR, AND PRESIDENT; 

TO THE 

MANY HUNDREDS OF HIS SURVIVING PUPILS, 

AND TO ALL WHO LOVE LOFTY POETRY, 

THIS VERSION OF THE GREAT HEBREW MASTERPIECE 

IS RESPECTFULLY 
DEDICATED 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface . 1 

The Poetic Structure 7 

Introductory Essay 11 

The Persons 55 

The Prologue . . 57 

The Poetic Text 63 

The Epilogue 160 

Abbreviations 162 

Explanatory Notes . . 165 

Bibliography 231 

Index of Words and Phrases 234 



(PREFACE 

In the preparation of this work, as of all the mas- 
terpieces he has annotated, the editor's aim has been 
to popularize a portion of the world's greatest litera- 
ture. Such literature ought not to be merely the 
luxury of a few, but should become, if possible, a joy 
and an inspiration to the many. 

Perhaps on a much larger scale than we are wont 
to imagine, high thinking may coexist with plain liv- 
ing. Into this particular structure, the Book of Job, 
admittedly the finest literary creation of Semitic 
genius, the average man and woman should be en- 
couraged to enter. 

Especially should it be made the subject of study 
in every Bible class, and equally with the master- 
pieces of Shakespeare and Milton in all the higher 
seminaries of learning. How to make it instantly 
and permanently attractive is the problem. 

To this end it is quite important to show both to 
eye and ear that here is a true poem. 

Within the last hundred years several translations 
have with more or less skill presented to the reader 
something of the ancient form. Recently the prin- 
ter's art has been still more utilized to make visible 
the curious parallelisms of lines and groups of lines 
and the symmetry of the whole. 

1 



3 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Mere form, however, is not sufficient. A principal 
basis of most poetry, as of all music, is in sound. To 
begin each line with a capital, and then utterly dis- 
regard metre, is a mockery. It " keeps the word 
of promise to the " eye, and " breaks it to the " ear 
and thence to the soul. Instead of floating sympa- 
thetically on rhythmic undulations, the reader is too 
often made to feel himself balked, jolted, staggered, 
or even upset, by prosiest discords. 

Eecognizing with Cowper that 

" There is in souls a sympathy with sounds," 

we hope to be looked upon leniently for this attempt, 
however imperfect, to render into responsive verse, on 
a somewhat new plan, each line for the most part 
exactly corresponding to the original, the wisdom, 
pathos, beauty, and sublimity of this masterpiece. 
It should be gratifying to all, if some hand, more 
skilful than ours, should build better on this founda- 
tion. 

In the present state of Semitic scholarship we can- 
not hope to ascertain with certainty the exact metri- 
cal value of all the Hebrew letters, vowel points, 
accents, music signs, etc.; and, if we could, it were 
even then questionable whether a satisfactory result 
would be gained by any attempt to reproduce it. In 
this direction Professor George H. Gilbert, in his 
The Poetry of Job, has displayed much learning 
and skill; but his attempts, however ingenious, to 
reproduce the original tones, metres, or quantities, 
sometimes result in a sort of " hop-skip-and-jump " 



PEEFACE 3 

movement seemingly at variance with grace, dignity, 
and power. 

A more serious fault has characterized some of the 
essays at turning the body of the book into verse. 
In the King James version especially, there are 
familiar passages to which we cling lovingly for their 
sweet and noble diction. But the versifier, in spite 
of himself, is liable to drift away from the choice 
phraseology and sometimes from the real thought, 
transmuting elegant prose into indifferent or irrele- 
vant verse. Professor E. W. Baymond's scholarly 
translation, perhaps the most felicitous in rhyme, re- 
minds us of Bentley^s oft-quoted comment on Pope's 
masterly paraphrase of the Iliad, " A pretty poem, 
Mr. Pope ; but you must not call it Homer ! " 

The editor has commonly adhered to the interpre- 
tations given in the recent Bevised Versions (Eng- 
lish 1881-1885, and American 1897-1901), pre- 
ferring, however, if the sense is in substance the 
same, the language of the Authorized Version 
(1611). 

But in all these versions there is a good deal of 
padding! Accordingly he has often ventured upon 
a closer translation, making much use of the alterna- 
tive marginal readings, rejecting all superfluous 
words, and relying on the great lexicons of Gesenius 
and B. Davidson. He has found extremely valuable 
the masterly translation and notes of Dr. T. J. 
Conant in the Eevised Version of the American Bible 
Union, containing in parallel columns on each page 
the Authorized Version, the original Hebrew text, 
and Conant' s translation. Very valuable too has 



4 THE BOOK OF JOB 

been the standard work of Dr. A. B. Davidson in 
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 
(1889) ; also the learned, interesting, and instructive 
notes of Dr. F. C. Cook, Canon of Exeter, in the 
Bible Commentary (1886) ; the slashing critical notes 
and multitudinous emendations of Professor C. Sieg- 
fried of the University of Jena in the so-called 
"Polychrome Edition" (Leipzig, 1893). Dr. John 
F. Genung's " The Epic of the Inner Life," does 
credit to his head and heart. Dr. J. T. Marshall's 
notes o.n Job in The American Commentary on the 
Qld Testament (1904) have been found worthy of 
careful consideration. Professor A. S. Peake's notes 
on Job in The New Century Bible (1905) should 
be studied. Last but not least is the compact and 
scholarly work of Dr. S. K. Driver, Professor of He- 
brew at Oxford (1906). The splendid work of Dr. 
Albert Barnes in two volumes (1881) should not 
pass unmentioned, nor the translation and notes of 
Dr. George E. Noyes (1827). To all of these and to 
some other publications the editor is much indebted. 
See the appended Bibliography. 1 

As the Hebrew original is wonderfully concise and 
therefore pungent and powerful, the editor has clung 
closely to it, sometimes at the risk of obscurity; and 

1 Since writing 1 the foregoing, two important works have issued 
from the English press; The Dramatic Poem of Job by W. Jennings, 
M.A., and Job and the Problem of Suffering by T. F. Royds, B.D. 
Jennings aims to render with exactness the substance of the orig- 
inal poetic text, each line commonly with four rhythmic beats or 
accents and ending with a trochee. The same objection lies to 
this as to Gilbert's above mentioned. The fact is that as a rule, 
there is no adequate substitute for the stately English heroic verse. 
Royds' work, The Problem of Suffering, is also masterly. Both 
are "up to date " (1912). 



PKEFACE 5 

so in numerous instances has effected a very desirable 
condensation. 

As a means of gaining a true metrical form, and 
also to conform to Pope's rule, 

" The sound should seem an echo to the sense/' 

a simple transposition of words has often sufficed. 
Iambics have been made the basis but, as in some of 
the best English poems, the verse glides easily into 
trochaic, or even into dactylic or anapestic. There 
has been no attempt to restrict the verses to pentam- 
eter. 

To avoid the common fault of making tame by 
dilution, some of the ellipses and abrupt ejaculations 
of the original text have been reproduced. In a few 
instances, notably in the celebrated passage, chapter 
xix, 25, 26, 27, the exact order of the words in the 
Hebrew has been reproduced. 

Into the discussion of many interesting problems 
raised by the book, we do not care to enter here. 
Such among others is the question of its authorship, 
its date, its original unity; of suspected later addi- 
tions, as the speeches of Elihu, the description of 
behemoth and leviathan; the question of the missing 
third speech of Zophar, and the possible dislocation 
of passages. We may be pardoned for boldness in 
making repeatedly a new suggestion explanatory of 
Job's manifest inconsistencies and audacities as the 
text stands in the usual versions. It is this: that 
in the midst of his terrible torture his disease affects 
his brain, his reason gives way, dark aberrations 



6 THE BOOK OF JOB 

alternate with lucid intervals. In one of the latter 
he utters the great discourse on Wisdom in chapter 
xxviii and the lovely reminiscences of chapter xxix. 

To Professor Eobert W. Sogers, D.D., Theodore 
T. Munger, D.D., Eobert Stuart MacArthur, D.D., 
William E. Huntington, D.D., and to the editor's 
learned classmate, Jacob Cooper, D.D., among others, 
thanks are due for valuable suggestions. 

The preparation of this work has been a labor of 
love, bringing day by day at intervals for many years 
its " exceeding great reward." If its publication 
shall contribute in even a small degree to make this 
masterpiece more extensively read and more highly 
appreciated, the editor will be well content. 

Newton, Mass. 



THE POETIC STEUCTUEE 

Substantially following some of the most recent au- 
thorities, we have endeavored to exhibit much of the 
parallelism of the poem. 

Into any analysis or discussion of the poetic sys- 
tem in the Hebrew original, we deem it needless to 
enter here. The most superficial reader, however, 
may discern a certain fitness of the varying forms 
— bimembral, stanza-like, strophic or antistrophic, 
logical or rhetorical — to express with concinnity the 
changing thought, imagery, sentiment, or emotion. 

Objection is sometimes made to an alleged arti- 
ficiality with which the book as a whole and in every 
part has been constructed, as if art were inconsistent 
with inspiration. But inasmuch as speech, if not 
thought itself, in its higher moods is rhythmical, 
and Art often serves Nature most faithfully when it 
utters the soul in measured sound, it can hardly 
savor of irreverence to claim this poet as an artist. 

Those church hymns and anthems which lift us 
highest on the wings of song are often products of 
the most painstaking skill. Artificiality is no more 
chargeable here than in the exquisite symmetry of a 
fern or a feather. 

We would serve especially the average reader; but 
fortunate are the few who can command the time, 

7 



8 THE BOOK OF JOB 

the taste, the learning, and the sensibility, to make 
a scientific study of Hebrew poetry, and to appreci- 
ate the reasons for rhythmic, rhetorical, or logical 
variation in the structure. 

Such will find it not unprofitable to discriminate 
and classify parallel lines as similar or dissimilar; 
parallelisms as echo-like, antithetic, cumulative, 
etc.; parallel groups as stanzas (couplets, tercets, 
quatrains, quintets, sestets, septets, etc.) ; strophes, 
antistrophes, climaxes, inversions, introversions, du- 
plications, interlacings, refrains, etc.; and, in them 
all, to point out the reasons for the marvelous corre- 
spondences, " thought-rhymes," that underlie the vis- 
ible resemblances and differences. The effort, too, if 
long continued, would give a fine discipline both in 
logic and in esthetics. (See the Preface.) 

For such, the material is abundant and easily ac- 
cessible. More or less, for a century and a half, the 
technique has been discussed by eminent scholars, 
beginning not later than the interesting " Lectures on 
the Poetry of the Hebrews " by Bishop Lowth 
(1753), and coming down to the views of the gifted 
Professors Genung, Gilbert, Moulton, Jennings, and 
other scholars of recent date. 



I call the Book of Job 2 apart from all the- 
ories about it, one of the grandest things ever 
written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it 
were not Hebrew; such a noble universality, 
different from noble patriotism or sectarian- 
ism, reigns in it. A noble Book; all men's 
Book! 

It is our first, oldest statement of the never- 
ending Problem, — man's destiny, and God's 
ways with him here in this earth. And all in 
such free flowing outlines; grand in its sin- 
cerity, in its simplicity; in its epic melody, 
and repose of reconcilement. There is the see- 
ing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So 
true every way; true eyesight and vision for 
all things; material things no less than spir- 
itual : the Horse, — " hast thou clothed his neck 
with thunder? " — he " laughs at the shaking of 
the spear ! " Such living likenesses were never 
since drawn. 

Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; old- 
est choral melody as of the heart of mankind; 
— so soft and great ; as the summer midnight, 
as the world with its seas and stars! There 
is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or 
out of it, of equal literary merit. — Cablyle, 
Heroes and Hero Worship, 1840. 



10 



INTKODTTCTOEY ESSAY 

THE BOOK OF JOB: HISTORY OK ALLEGORY? 

No important literary production is involved in 
more obscurity. Notwithstanding thorough investi- 
gations by many scholars extending through cen- 
turies, its author is unknown, his nationality is 
doubtful, his period undetermined, even his purpose 
conjectural. At first glance the great central figure 
seems full of contradictions. He passes suddenly 
from hope to despair, from meekness to audacity, 
from narrowest introspection to widest observation, 
from intense subjectivity to most realistic word- 
painting. 

Even the literary classification of the work is mat- 
ter of dispute. In view of its progressively vehe- 
ment dialogue, though it has little of the spectacular, 
less of movement, and with slight exception nothing 
of character development, most critics have chosen 
to call it a drama. Without visible action on a 
scale of world-wide or national interest, the versified 
portion, more than nine tenths of the whole, has been 
termed by a scholarly translator 1 The Epic of the 
Inner Life. Abounding in complex structure and 
lofty sentiment — interspersed passages of feeling so 

1 John F. Genung, D.D. 

11 



12 THE BOOK OF JOB 

highly wrought, and workmanship so elaborate and 
artistic, as to be plausibly denominated strophes, 
antistrophes, sonnets, hymns, or even odes — yet as 
a whole it would hardly be characterized as simply 
lyric. Set in a framework of startling events it has 
numerous pictures, faithful pen-drawings, some of 
them highly colored, yet it is not mainly descriptive. 
Maugre its scenic beginning and ending and its vary- 
ing moods, it is lacking in incident as a whole, and 
therefore not classed as narrative. Unquestionably 
it is for the most part a religious discussion, yet so 
imaginative and surcharged with emotion that no 
one would style it a didactic treatise. Its persona! 
experiences, punctuated by volcanic outbursts of pas- 
sion, with solemn appeals, bitter irony, eloquent 
moralizing, delightful reminiscences, pathetic moan- 
ings, stern imprecation, all tell a story of unparal- 
leled sufferings by an innocent victim of a seemingly 
merciless inquisitor; yet we hesitate to name it a 
biography, or, as Luther did, a real history. 

But it is not important to label correctly the out- 
ward form of this sevenfold blending of elements 
dramatic, epic, lyric, descriptive, narrative, didactic, 
and biographical. More fruitful it may be, as we 
read the surface story, to endeavor to discover, look- 
ing deeper into the composite whole, a series of 
personifications of final causes and titanic forces, 
symbolisms of world movements, of stupendous phys- 
ical changes, all converging on man to be perfected 
as the end in view in the vast processes of our spe- 
cial universe. 



HISTOKY OR ALLEGORY? 13 

Apparently the author lived five or six hundred 
years before the Christian era; the chief character, 
Job, perhaps a thousand years earlier. 

The scene is mainly laid in Uz, supposed to have 
been a pastoral tract in Arabia Deserta, some sixty 
or seventy miles in length by ten to twenty in width. 

It is an Arcadian land. Life there is simple, 
quiet, uneventful. The traditions, customs, views, 
and principles are those of generations of patriarchs. 
Save for monotheism and the inherited rites of a 
pure faith like that of the mysterious Melchisedek, 
they have only the rudiments of theology. Of course, 
with no literature, no recorded history, no studied 
philosophy, and little or nothing of science, clouds 
of superstition must dim the faint rays from above. 
They see not far in space, time, or spirit. No 
Shekinah has ever shone here; no pillar of cloud or 
flame has guided a migration hitherward; no fire- 
touched lips are sounding in their ears a " Thus saith 
the Lord." A faint tradition mav have reached 
them of an auroral Eden or a universal cataclysm, 
but no prophetic pencil has painted the glow of a 
millennial dawn. Centuries are to elapse before a 
Star of Bethlehem or Sun of Righteousness shall rise. 

Yet they are conscious of no lack. Nature is 
genial. A kindly Deity is believed to be ever pres- 
ent, ever active. His hand they think they recognize 
in every event. Near them are the silent deserts, and 
far off the nations forget them and are forgotten. 

Our oriental poet begins with a charming vision. 
In this fair Arabian district, luminous by "the light 
that never was on sea or land," a splendid personage 



14 THE BOOK OF JOB 

appears, " greatest of all the children of the East." 
His residence is a lordly villa. " Seven thousand 
sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of 
oxen, five hundred she-asses, and a very great house- 
hold" attest his wealth. Now in the Indian Sum- 
mer of his days, at the summit of prosperity, at peace 
with God and man and his own conscience, possessing 
almost regal power and using it ever to promote 
righteousness, his crowning glory to comfort the sor- 
rowing (Chap, xxix, 25), he can look back with satis- 
faction upon many a deed of beneficence, and forward 
with confidence to a well-earned leisure, 

" And that which should accompany old age, 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." 

Most precious perhaps of his earthly blessings, seven 
sons and three daughters are near him all in health 
and comfort, and a continuous succession of birth- 
day festivities makes life a holiday. 

The scene suddenly shifts ; our eyes open upon the 
world of spirits ; we are in the skies. 

" On such a day 
As heaven's great year brings forth," 

some of the chief personages of the universe, " Sons 
of God," come to present themselves before Jehovah. 
He calls attention to the princely patriarch. " Hast 
thou considered my servant Job; for there is none 
like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright 
man, one that feareth God and turneth away from 
evil?" 



HISTOEY OE ALLEGOEY? 15 

This speech is addressed to a singular being desig- 
nated as " the .Satan" (adversary), who has come 
among the " Sons of God." Whether we recognize 
him as " the Evil One," embodiment of hate, chief 
of malignant spirits, enemy of all good; styled by 
Shakespeare " the eternal devil," the " lordly mon- 
arch of the north," by the Persians Ahriman, by 
the Egyptians Typhon, by the Scandinavians Loki; 
alias Dante's Lucifer, Milton's Satan, Luther's Devil, 
Bunyan's Beelzebub and Diabolus, Goethe's Mephis- 
topheles; or whether we regard him as a personifi- 
cation of that phase of physical evolution which 
knows no vis medicatrix naturae, overlooks no error, 
and brooks no deviation; rigid, all-embracing law; 
this " accusing spirit " instantly challenges the truth 
of Jehovah's assertion. He more than insinuates 
that the man, alleged to be a blameless and upright," 
is at heart mercenary. He exclaims, " Doth Job 
fear God for nought? . . . Put forth thy hand now, 
and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce thee 
to thy face." " And the Lord said unto the Adver- 
sary, ' Behold, all that he hath is in thy power ; only 
upon himself put not forth thy hand.' " 

So the " Spirit that denies " departs with full per- 
mission to try the experiment, for experiment it cer- 
tainly is, to ascertain whether he or the Omniscient 
is mistaken ! Thus runneth the story. 

Can this be history ? If so, why did not Jehovah's 
positive declaration settle the matter? silence the au- 
dacious Adversary? establish past all doubt the fact 
of the perfect integrity of our hero? Must there 



16 THE BOOK OF JOB 

not be an underlying meaning? May it not all be 
better explained as figurative? 

It may aid in answering this question if we bear 
in mind the assumption which, taken literally, the 
story of such a trial implies; viz., that man, even 
the best of men, has no rights which the inquisitor is 
bound to respect, except safety of body. Ethics — 
justice, kindness, mercy, sympathy — are not to be 
in evidence. Neither angel nor man shall interfere 
to stop the strange business, 



Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark 
To cry, ' Hold, hold! >» 



The test proceeds; the curtain falls and rises: 
events follow as in illusions 

"At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time." 

In swift succession Sabean and Chaldean marauders, 
alternating with lightning and cyclone, sweep away 
the victim's property and kill all his sons. 

Now if this is not allegoric, symbolical of unavoid- 
able occurrences in the general movement of the 
physical Creation — if the disasters are to be re- 
garded as the premeditated effect of the intervention 
of a supernatural being, thwarting, directing, con- 
trolling, or suspending the operation of natural law 
• — is not the attack on Job somewhat astounding, and 
still more so the divine permission to make it and so 
cause the calamities? 

Who is this merciless inquisitor?. 

Dr. A. B. Davidson in his admirable commentary 



HISTOEY OE ALLEGOEY? 17 

takes him to be "a sifting providence" (an inspec- 
tor, examiner, like the so-called " Advocatus Dia- 
boli' in ecclesiastical Eome). The distinguished 
Professor Moulton in his valuable Modem Reader s 
Bible heartily concurs, deems him the "minister of 
God's trying providence/' " nothing if not critical " ; 
not bad at all, only very particular! The professor 
goes further : he even dares to allege, " As other sons 
of God may have one or other of the morning stars 
in their guardianship, so the Adversary is the Guard- 
ian Spirit of the earth " ! * 

Can this be he of whom the great Founder of 
Christianity said {Luke x, 18), "I beheld Satan as 
lightning fall from heaven"? and whom he termed 
" a murderer from the beginning ... a liar and the 
father of it" (John viii, 44) ? and whom Paul char- 
acterized as u the prince of the power of the air, the 
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedi- 
ence" (Ephesians ii, 2) ? 

Job as yet firmly believes that God is his friend, 
but that He has for some unknown reason become 
the immediate author of all these distresses; and ac- 
cordingly with unquestioning submission he acqui- 
esces, sins not. " The Lord gave and the Lord hath 
taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!" 
Touching and beautiful this resignation: but does it 
alter the ethical quality of the action of him who di- 
rectly caused the havoc and the slaughter ? 

The ordeal is severe, but the Adversary does not 

1 Professor Moulton is even bolder than Milton, who entitles the 
archangel Uriel "Regent of the Sun " (Par. Lost, iii, 690). See 
Rev. xix, 17. But is not the professor mistaken when (M. R. B., 
Book of Job, Introduction, p. xvi) he interprets all as literal fact? 



18 THE BOOK OF JOB 

seem satisfied that the test is crucial. He still ap- 
parently holds God to be untruthful or mistaken, and 
Job a time-server. 

Again our ancient dreamer sees heaven opened and 
the " Sons of God " assembled. Again we hear the 
All-wise affirm the man^s perfect integrity, and again 
the Satan challenges Him to the proof. " Put forth 
thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and 
he will renounce thee to thy face ! " 

More surprisingly than before, permission is given 
the bold Adversary to do his worst; only life is to 
be spared ! Bodily pain unspeakable now supervenes. 
The remorseless inspector, celestial or infernal, 
"smote him with sore boils from the sole of his foot 
to his crown." The sufferer, as before, imputes his 
misery to the direct action of his Maker. His wife, 
perhaps surmising that his very faithfulness keeps 
him alive, and that it were better for him to die at 
once and so end the agony, exclaims, as if frenzied, 
" Eenounce God and die ! " He sharply answers, 
" Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. What ! 
shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and 
shall we not receive evil ? " 

If we take all this for actuality rather than im- 
agery, its ethical quality again confronts and puzzles. 
With what feelings must we regard the " Advocatus 
Diaboli" who suggests and conducts the process? or 
the " Sons of God " who coolly watch the inquest, 
while no "Advocatus Dei" interposes? One would 
suppose that the " direful spectacle " should have 
" touched the very virtue of compassion " in a worse 



HISTORY OR ALLEGORY? 19 

than Torquemada. If the proceeding is not para- 
bolic, how does it differ from diabolic? 

It is no brief pang. Night and day for weeks, 
perhaps months, the disease grows more terrible. 
" The living dead," banished with loathing from his 
palatial mansion, is a leper on an ash-heap outside. 
His surviving relatives and old-time friends stand 
aloof with horror. Brit they do not see the worst: 
there is to be an added torture, a vivisection of soul. 

" Now I saw in my dream," as Bunyan would say, 
three learned friends approaching. " They made an 
appointment together to come to mourn with him 
and to comfort him." Beholding him at some dis- 
tance so changed as to be unrecognizable, " They 
lifted up their voice and wept." They drew near. 
" They sat down with him upon the ground seven days 
and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him; 
for they saw that his grief was very great." Their 
hearts at first are tender; but they are doctors of 
ancient divinity, not of modern medicine. They 
know something of theology, nothing of therapeutics : 
they bring theories, not anaesthetics ; caustics for the 
soul, not cataplasms for the body : they rely on allop- 
athy, not water-cure; remorse such as killed Judas, 
not ablutions such as cured Naaman. 

At length the long-suppressed agony finds voice : — 

PERISH THE DAY! —in it I was born! 

And the night! — it was said, A man's conceived! 

Be that day darkness! 

God from above regard it not, 



SO THE BOOK OF JOB 

Nor light upon it shine! 

Darkness and Death-shade claim it theirs! 

Cloud on it dwell: 

Affright it darkenings of the day! iii, 3-5. 



\Whj died I not from birth? 

Come forth from mother and expire? 

Why were knees ready for me? 

Or why the breasts that I should suck? iii, 11, 12. 

The oldest and ablest of the three, Dr. Eliphaa 
of Tema, thinks he recognizes the malady as a case 
of moral blood-poisoning, leprosy of body resulting 
from leprosy of soul, " the outward visible sign of 
an inward spiritual " disgrace. In this diagnosis the 
rest concur. 

He begins gently, recommending spiritual purga- 
tion. Unable to specify overt sins, he suggests in- 
herent depravity. He dwells upon it with a confi- 
dence and an unction that would have delighted John 
Calvin or Jonathan Edwards. He has had a remark- 
able vision. 

Now stealthily a word was brought me, 

And thereof caught mine ear a whisper. 

In thoughts distract, from visions of the night, 

In falling of deep sleep on men, 

A Terror met me, and a trembling, 

Which made my many bones to shake. 

Glided a Spirit then before my face! 

Bristled the hair of my flesh ! — 

It stood, but I could not discern its form: 

Before mine eyes an apparition! — 



HISTOEY OE ALLEGORY? 21 

Silence ! — and I heard a voice — 

Mortal before God, just? 

Man, pure before his Maker? 

Lo, in His servants putteth He no trust. 

And to His angels He imputeth frailty! 

How much more them that in clay houses dwell ! 

Who, their foundation in the dust, 

Are crushed before the moth: 

'Twixt morn and eve t'. ey're beaten down; 

For aye they perish, no one heeding." iv, 12-20. 

His speech is a masterpiece. With solemn warnings 
to Job against passionate impatience and inconsid- 
erate anger at being chastised for his sins, he pre- 
scribes penitence and prayer, and holds out high 
hopes of restoration to God^s favor and great worldly 
prosperity, if he will mend his ways ! Bildad and 
Zophar are less charitable. 

Job complains of their lack of sympathy; indig- 
nantly denies that he is depraved. His protesta- 
tions they deem brazen effrontery. From hints they 
pass to angry expostulations. With increasing em- 
phasis they reiterate their conviction that his misery 
is conclusive proof of desperate wickedness. They 
recommend sheer spiritual evisceration. In vain 
have they tried entreaties and promises. With cruel 
threats they bid him repent, confess, beg forgiveness, 
forsake his sins. 

But what shall he repent of? what confess? for 
what ask pardon? what forsake? 

With the best of intentions for the good of Job 
and the justification of God, Eliphaz takes upon him- 
self to enlighten him, drawing upon his imagination 



22 THE BOOK OF JOB 

for facts and inventing untruths, to bolster up their 
precious theory. 

Not great thy wickedness? 

Nor end to thy iniquities? 

For thou a pledge for nought hast taken from thy brother, 

And stripped the naked of their clothing: 

Water to drink thou hast not given the weary, 

And bread thou hast withholden from the hungry. 

But the Man-of-Arm ! — to him the land ! 

And the Lifted-up-of-Face sat down in it. 

Widows away thou sentest empty-handed, 

And broken have been the orphans' arms. xxii, 5-9. 

Over and over, Job has energetically averred such 
accusations to be false, and at last he asseverates his 
innocence with a solemn oath. 

This brings up the oft-recurring question, then 
perhaps discussed at length for the first time in lofty 
literature, and still a topic of almost universal in- 
terest — for this man, stretched like poor old Lear 
66 upon the rack of this tough world," may well be a 
type of all who experience inexplicable misery — the 
baffling problem, 

SUFFERING, SEVERE AND LONG, YET UNDESERVED — 

WHENCE AND WHY? 

We may dismiss from consideration for the pres- 
ent the cases of those who, like Socrates, voluntarily 
endure distress, to set an example of perfect obedi- 
ence even to an unjust law; or of those who, like 
" the noble army of martyrs," cheerfully die for a 
truth more precious than life; or those who sacrifice 



UNSOLVED MYSTEKY 23 

themselves vicariously, as we read of One " wounded 
for our transgressions," and " bruised for our iniqui- 
ties." Nor need we urge at this moment the obvious 
fact that apparent evil, however incurred, may often 
have an educative value, affording a fruitful field for 
scientific research, or furnishing needed discipline, 
or a stimulus to strenuous exertion, or inspiration to 
bravery and fortitude, or in some other way trans- 
forming a stumbling-block into a stepping-stone. 

Passing by these, let us glance at several widely ac- 
cepted solutions of the mystery, particularly those 
commented upon by Professor Moulton in The Mod- 
em Reader s Bible. 

I. To one who accepts the surface story, not as 
allegory but as literal verity, there is no need of 
looking further. The torture purposely inflicted by 
"the Satan" is asserted to be merely a "test of 
saintship," a trial planned to discover whether Job's 
obedience to God is free from taint of selfishness, or 
on the contrary is inspired by hope of reward; in 
other words, Which was mistaken, Jehovah or "the 
Satan " ? 

In confirmation of the view that the torture was 
so designed, the learned professor remarks, "If it 
be objected that the idea of a scientific experiment 
is out of harmony with the situation, I would ask 
what else is implied in ' a state of probation 9 ?" It 
appears therefore that a " state of probation " is in 
his opinion correctly assumed, and that consequently 
the infliction of unspeakable suffering was very 
proper, a well-planned ordeal ! 1 

i Modern Reader's Bible, pp. xvi, xvii. — The flippant Mephis- 



24 THE BOOK OF JOB 

This, then, is solution number one. 

Pleased with it, he touches lightly on the objec- 
tion which a tender heart or sensitive conscience 
might make to the robberies, the massacre of the in- 
nocent, the hurled lightnings, the death-dealing cy- 
clone, the bodily and mental anguish. To justify 
the good " Adversary," he urges that it is important 
to establish a belief in the perfectibility of human 
nature. He remarks : 

" This much may safely be said : so vast is the 
disproportion between the suffering of the individual 
and the question of the possibility of earthly per- 
fection, that Job himself, could he have assisted at 
that session of heaven's court, would have gladly as- 
sented to the test of the ' Adversary/ " 

Perhaps so. Yes, the victim, utterly ignorant of 
the impending horrors, might have assented. But 
would that assent have excused the savagery ? 
May we 

" To do a great right, do a little wrong " ? 

All but ancient theologians would be likely to an- 
swer with Portia, 

" It must not be." 

" A little wrong ! " — this accumulation of agonies 
purposely heaped upon the best of men! to try an 
" experiment," forsooth ! an extemporized clinic, un- 
speakable torture prolonged for months, not to make 

topheles is not impressed to solemnity. He turns the whole into 
a wager! He says to the Lord, " Was wettet ihr? " Goethe's Faust 
(42d line after Prolog im Himmel). 



UNSOLVED MYSTEEY 25 

a sick man well, but to find out whether a seemingly 
well man is not really sick ! 

Had he consented, conscious that he was watched 
all the while by the " Sons of God," of what psy- 
chological value could such a trial have been? espe- 
cially had he foreseen, like the chained Prometheus, 
that he would come off victorious ? Would his acqui- 
escence, whether it helped the test or spoiled it, have 
made the business right and proper? Eather would 
not meek submission have intensified the injustice? 

Assent or dissent — what could that have proved ? 
Or if, in extreme agony, he had recanted after assent- 
ing — what then ? 

" You speak upon the rack, 
Where men enforced do speak anything," 

says the greatest of Shakespeare's female characters. 

Can we in any event shut our eyes to the ethical 
objection? 

Let us not be misunderstood. We are not argu- 
ing that there was no test, but that the test did not 
so originate. We admit the phenomena, deny the 
hypothesis. A great truth doubtless underlies all; 
but let us not mistake shadow for substance, a nat- 
ural automatic progress for an artificial planned pro- 
cedure. 

One of the ablest of recent commentators boldly 
denies that pain is an evil. He justifies the grue- 
some cruelty on the ground that pain sometimes tends 
to perfect character. 1 

But this was not the end sought. It was not to 

1 Dr. Robert A. Watson in The Expositor's Bible, article on Job. 



26 THE BOOK OF JOB 

render Job perfect, but to discover and demonstrate 
whether he was or was not already perfect. 

Grant that the result, the truth made manifest, is 
interesting; nay, even, as in this case, elevating and 
inspiring. It is eloquently stated by Genung: 

" There is a service of God which is not work 
for reward : it is a heart loyalty, a hunger after God's 
presence, which survives loss and chastisement: 
which, in spite of contradictory seeming, cleaves to 
what is God-like as the needle seeks the pole; and 
which reaches out of the darkness and hardness of 
this life to the light and love beyond/' 1 

Yes, the end is divine, but the means — Satanic ! 
If the infliction of horrible, long-protracted agony 
upon an innocent man, to try an " experiment/' is 
not wrong, nothing is wrong. 

Thus much for the plausible but happily obsoles- 
cent theory of a probation," not disciplinary but ex- 
perimental ! 

II. But, as already stated, our three doctrinaires, 
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, have come forward with 
a ready explanation of the Mystery. It is designated 

THE SECOND OFFERED SOLUTION. 

It is this : " Misery is wed to guilt," happiness 
to innocence: wealth, prosperity, enjoyment, imply 
merit; poverty, misfortune, pain, imply demerit: 
physical well-being and physical evil measure desert: 
success is Heaven's smile, adversity its frown. 
Therefore worldly condition is a pretty fair gauge 
of moral character; the greatest of sufferers is prob- 

1 Genung' s Epic of the Inner Life (p. 20 of his Introductory 
/Study). 



UNSOLVED MYSTEEY 27 

ably the greatest of sinners; the greatest of sinners 
should be the least prosperous of mortals: Job 
must have brought these woes upon himself by his 
iniquities ! Q. e. d. ! 

Through eight or ten discourses, Job replying sep- 
arately to each — three successive rounds, each speak- 
ing in regular order (Zophar, however, failing to 
speak a third time?), — these prehistoric schoolmen 
reiterate their dogma. If the facts controvert it, so 
much the worse for the facts. 

Their speeches ended, Job in several chapters of 
great beauty and power states his case. Down to 
the hour of his sorest distress, he had probably held 
the same tenet with them. But now his eyes are open 
to its utter falsity as applied to himself, for he knows 
he does not deserve such suffering; its utter falsity 
as applied to many others; for he has seen villains, 
worthiest of punishment, enjoying an apparently 
blissful existence even to old age. With deep pathos 
he contrasts his past with his present. He closes 
with solemn asseverations of his entire innocence, 
and with imprecations of divine vengeance upon him- 
self if guilty in thought, word, or deed. The three 
are silenced. 

III. Hereupon a young enthusiast, Elihu, not 
named before nor afterwards, interjects a long speech. 
He blames Job for audacious language, reiterates the 
dogma of earthly gains or losses as proofs of integ- 
rity or depravity, and couples with it as a sort of 
corollary what he deems a further reason for the 
mysterious affliction. It has been designated the 

THIRD SOLUTION". 



28 THE BOOK OP JOB 

It is this : Suffering is not simply a punishment ; 
it is also a warning; corrective as well as vindictive. 
Moulton states the doctrine succinctly, " Suffering 
is judgment warning the sinner by repentance to es- 
cape heavier judgment." 

Most moralists will concede that an ■ important 
truth underlies these blended theories of retribution 
and admonition : transgression will be punished, and 
punishment should be disciplinary. 

Emerson argues that a wrong-doer never escapes. 
Cicero asserts that he who disobeys the " higher law " 
" incurs, by the wrong done to his own nature, the 
heaviest penalty." 

But our protagonist is not depraved, Jehovah's 
word for it. " There is none like him in the earth, a 
perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God 
and escheweth evil." He needs no warning. 

So the " Third Solution," like the second, solves 
nothing. 

Against the multiplied reiterations of the perni- 
cious doctrine that worldly prosperity or its opposite 
is a criterion of moral character, every experience 
of martyr, prophet, or evangelist, with few excep- 
tions, is an unmistakable protest. In many an. age, 
if not now, Lowell's bitter complaint has been too 
true, 

"Truth forever on the scaffold^ Wrong forever on the 
throne! " 

The fact that the poetic portion of the book is 
largely occupied with the statement and the refuta- 
tion of that once prevalent belief seems to show how 



UNSOLVED MYSTERY 29 

important the author felt the task to be of anni- 
hilating the delusion and establishing the reality. 
The effort was well worth the pains; for no poison 
was ever more subtle, more seductive, more widely 
diffused, more persistent, or more mischievous ; in the 
long run deadening all recognition of the universal 
divine Fatherhood, all sense of the universal human 
Brotherhood. To this day, who is not liable to be 
infected? What pious millionaire is not tempted to 
fancy himself a " beauty rose " made superlatively 
fair by an overruling hand, which for his goodness 
has plucked off myriads of ordinary buds to give him 
preeminent bloom? 

If the book had ended with the last discourse of 
Job, though it had thrown little or no light on the 
world problem of the origin of evil, it had done 
something far more useful. For nearly the first time 
in history, and with an emphasis never surpassed, it 
had stated, illustrated, clearly demonstrated a truth 
of vital moment; a truth almost always ignored then, 
as it often is now, but which can never be effectively 
gainsaid; namely, 

Whatever be the cause of extreme and unde- 
served SUFFERING IN THE ORDINARY COURSE OF NA- 
TURE — whether vicariousness, like that of "the serv- 
ant of Jehovah" in Isaiah, or loyal obedience, like 
that of Socrates, or religious martyrdom, or accident, 
or heredity, or penalty, or ignorance, or chastisement, 
or warning, or " scientific experiment," or malicious 
attack, or aught else — external adversity is no 
proof of personal guilt ; nor, vice versa, is worldly 
prosperity any evidence of personal innocence. 



30 THE BOOK OF JOB 

IV. What many have confidently accounted an ex- 
planation of the mystery is sought in the " Voice 
from the Whirlwind." The Almighty is supposed to 
speak audibly in the Hebrew tongue to this effect: 
" The whole universe is an unfathomed mys- 
tery, AND THE EVIL IN IT IS NOT MORE MYSTERIOUS 
THAN THE GOOD AND THE GREAT." 

The editor of the Modern Reader's Bible is more 
than satisfied with this : he waxes eloquent : he terms 

it THE FOURTH SOLUTION. 

But is it any elucidation of an enigma to show 
that other enigmas are equally dark? any solution 
to conclude as he does, " The mystery is not to be 
solved within the limits of human knowledge"? 
And is it true that the good is as mysterious as the 
evil? The question is of final causes. Who ever 
doubted that of good? Who has not doubted that 
of evil? 

The Voice seems to the professor to say that on 
the whole the face of Nature is fair, and, as Paley 
taught over a hundred years ago, the keynote of the 
universe is joy. 

Is such information calculated to mitigate Job's 
anguish ? Must he not all the more sigh with Whit- 
tier's Andrew Eykman, 

" For myself alone I doubt ; 
All is well, I know, without: 
I alone the beauty mar; 
I alone the music jar "? 

In assuming to find in the utterance from the 
tempest a clearing up of the baffling mystery, are we 



UNSOLVED MYSTERY 31 

not in danger of missing altogether the real signifi- 
cance ? Of what kind is this theophany ? What is 
this VOICE? 

While Elihu is summing up the case against Job, 
heavy clouds are gathering. Soon thick darkness 
mantles all; a storm with blinding lightning and 
deafening thunder bursts upon them : from the bosom 
of the cyclone words of rebuke are heard — 

Who? — this ! — a-darkening counsel 
By words without intelligence? 

Gird up thy loins now like a man; 

And I will ask of thee, and do thou make me know ! 

When I laid Earth's foundations, where wast thouf 

Declare, if thou hast understanding: 

Its measures who determined, if thou knowest? 

Or who upon it stretched the line ? 

Whereon were its foundations sunk? 

Or who did lay its corner stone, 

When sang the morning stars together, 

And shouted all the sons of God for joy? 

Or shut the sea with doors, 

When it burst forth, issued new-born? 

When I the mist its mantle made, 

And the dark cloud its swaddling-band, 

And brake for it my boundary, 

And set up bars and doors; 

And said, Thus far shalt come; but further, no! 

And here thy Rollers' pride be stayed ! xxxviii, 8-14. 

In a sense Jehovah's voice, but under limitations; 
words spoken through the lips of the physical crea- 



32 THE BOOK OF JOB 

tion. What in that age could the tongue of ex- 
ternal Nature tell of the attributes of the Infinite 
One? or of His relations to man? Well might Job 
exclaim in one of his lucid intervals, 

How small a whisper of a word hear we of Him! 
And who can comprehend the thunder of His power? 

xxvi, 14. 

For hours the battle of argument has been waged, 
and the disputants silently await a decision. But 
on the questions they have been discussing — the 
guilt or innocence of the tortured victim, the ulti- 
mate cause of his suffering, the moral government of 
the Supreme Euler — the majestic speaker seems 
dumb; to all appeals, deaf; to the spectacles of rob- 
bery, massacre, and ruin, agony of body and soul, 
blind ! 

This attitude is significant. Does it not appar- 
ently suggest that, of many things which man is 
most anxious to know, the Power that makes the ma- 
terial world its only mouthpiece, reveals thereby no 
care or even cognizance? Of the vindication the 
slandered one longed for, of the reason why the tor- 
ture was permitted, of the hearing he so sought, of 
a life beyond the grave, of tender love from his Cre- 
ator, of spirits interested in human beings, of the 
immunity of the greatest villains — of any of these 
things, not a syllable! Is it not a fair inference 
that, in the opinion of our author, upon such matters, 
there is nothing that a Voice which only speaks out 
from whirlwind and thunder can say? 

We have thus arrived at a result totally unex- 



UNSOLVED MYSTEEY 33 

pected, yet so unmistakable and so important that we 
may perhaps account it one of the great teachings of 
the book. 

It seems to have been strangely misunderstood. 
Professor Moulton and other able commentators be- 
lieve they find in this Voice " a divine intervention 
denying the possibility of Job's reading the meaning 
of God's visitation/' That, surely, is not a balm to 
his wounded soul. But, more than most readers, the 
professor thinks to find in the tempest roar some- 
thing both affirmative and grandly comforting. He 
declares, " Here we have an infinite sympathy. . . . 
What is made prominent is an all-pervasive sym- 
pathy . . * joyous sympathy with the infinities (sic) 
of great and small throughout the universe." 1 Mar- 
shall, Eoyds and others concur. 

But let us not mistake our ardent admiration for 
supernal sympathy, human exultation for divine 
condescension. In our joyous wonder at the sublim- 
ities, — at omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence ; 
at the mysteries of creation; stars, ocean, darkness, 
light, snow, hail, rain, clouds, lightning; at the wild 
goat, wild ass, wild ox; the lion, raven, ostrich, war- 
horse, hawk, eagle, behemoth, leviathan, — do we not 
miss what we most crave, some assurance of a fel- 
low-feeling FROM ABOVE? 

" All-pervasive sympathy " ! Sympathy with man- 
kind? with feeble victims of the unsympathetic 
strong? with him whose need is sorest? with heroic 
sufferers in loneliness and agony ? Where is this lov- 

1 Mod. Bead. Bible, Introduction, pp. xxxv, xxxviii. 



34 THE BOOK OF JOB 

ing-kindness expressed or implied? Show us in this 
magnificent discourse of a hundred and fifty lines 
one clear expression, nay one distant hint, of fellow- 
ship, pity, condolence, or tender love. 

Our gifted professor considers any such expression 
needless. He adds as follows : " For the hopeless 
suffering in which there is nothing of guilt, what 
treatment can be better than to lose the individual 
pain in sympathetic wonder over nature in her 
inexhaustible variety ? " 1 

" To lose the individual pain " ! How? 

(S He jests at scars that never felt a wound." 

Imagine the consolation: "Unhappy saint! 
Seated on thy ash-heap all alone, seraping thyself 
with a potsherd, forget thy failure to receive vindi- 
cation and relief from Father above or man below. 
Lament not the loss of precious reputation and de- 
served respect. Think not of the derision, con- 
tumely, slanders heaped upon thee blameless. Mourn 
not thy vanished riches, thy lost companions ; friends, 
home, and joys forever gone; wife estranged, chil- 
dren slain. Never mind thy impending death, thy 
loathsome incurable disease, thy excruciating pain! 
Contemplate the wonders of nature — and be con* 

tent!" 

Sympathetic? This sphinx propounds riddles, 
never solves them. Here are seventy sharp ques- 
tions, each calculated to make any one feel himself 
worthless, utterly insignificant. Can Job in his an- 
guish philosophize over the vast and multitudinous 

1 Idem, xxxviii. 



UNSOLVED MYSTERY 35 

phenomena of sky, earth, and sea ? Is it possible that 
he should find inspiration, uplift, or cheer, in being 
told again that the unknown Power is immeasurable 
and eternal, he ephemeral and infinitesimal? or in 
being taunted with ignorance in the presence of 
Omniscience, or with feebleness of body in compari- 
son with gigantic brutes ? 

Says the commentator, " The individual experience 
now seems a small thing in the range of all nature's 
ways." Yes: but are the two commensurable? Is 
there not in man a nobility, a grandeur, of which the 
sublime Speaker apparently has no conception ? 

" For though the giant ages heave the hill 
And break the shore, and evermore 
Make and break, and work their will ; 
Though world on world in myriad myriads roll 
Round us, each with different powers 
And other forms of life than ours, 
What know we greater than the soul?" 

Tennyson, 

Interest is expressed in the appetite of the lion's 
whelps, the eaglets and the young ravens ; but no no- 
tice is taken of the spiritual cravings of man; his 
hunger for God, freedom, light, forgiveness, immor- 
tality; no recognition of the soul's possibilities, nor 
even of its existence! 

Justice too, " the everlasting, unchanging will to 
give to each his right." . . . What has External Na- 
ture, speaking in the trumpet tones of the tornado, to 
say of that? Is it promised? Nay, while there is 
no word of censure for Job's slanderers, there sounds 



36 THE BOOK OF JOB 

no note of encouragement, but rather continual dis- 
approbation, for him! 

Of course the visible punishment of scoundrels 
may be waived. Infinite compassion may pass it by. 
But can we resist the conviction that the highest 
virtue earth can boast, ought not to perish visibly 
and forever in hopeless defeat and unspeakable mis- 
ery? Are we not forced to feel it should survive, be 
recognized, be rewarded; else there is no moral gov- 
ernment; life is not worth living? 

" If this fail, 
The pillared firmament is rottenness, 
And earth's base built on stubble." 

Milton. 

What of justice or injustice? Nothing! 

The word duty is not in its vocabulary. Nor 
love to God, nor love to man. Force, physical, intel- 
lectual, animal, reigns. Life is a " struggle for ex- 
istence," often " a survival of the " unflttest, if ethi- 
cal quality can be predicated: but there is no ethics 
here ! 

Vain, too, the hope that the material universe will 
communicate the highest wisdom. 

Deep saith, " Not it in me " ! 

And Sea saith, " Not with me " ! xxviii, 14. 

Let us not, then, mistake creation for Creator, 
vesture for Wearer, web for Weaver, nor for a mo- 
ment conceive the ever-changing aggregate of matter 
to contain or represent the whole of Deity. 



UNSOLVED MYSTERY 37 

To such a being, vague as the Earth-Spirit in 
Faust, only revealed as the Genius of the Physical 
Universe mistaken for Jehovah, our great sufferer 
might very naturally exclaim, when all his piteous 
appeals were unanswered, 

I cry to thee, and thou me answerest not; 

I stand up, and thou — lookest at me ! xxx, 20. 

For aught that Nature could do, he might as well 
have prayed to Behemoth or Leviathan. 

Cruel seems this silent disregard, but crueler the 
thunderous rebukes, iterating to the last, 

Who ? — this ? — a- darkening counsel 
With words of knowledge void! 
Gird up thy loins now like a man! 
And I will ask thee: make me know. 

xl, 7; xlii, 4. 
Chider contend with the Almighty? 
Of God a chider ! — Let him answer it. xl, 2. 

Was the Voice from the Whirlwind, then, the full 
voice of Jehovah ? Shall we say that the Universe is 
a phonograph, reproducing the vox divina, while to- 
tally lacking the vox humana? 

Suppose the Book had ended here, leaving our be- 
loved and blameless sufferer disappointed, humiliated, 
self-abhorrent, dying in dust and ashes. Was sadder 
picture ever painted ? Surely our author will not 
leave him so. 

To such as Job there must be a future. He had 
hoped for it. How pathetic his longing ! 



38 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Oh that in Sheol thou wouldst hide me! 
Wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past; 
A set time wouldst appoint me, and remember me! 



If man die, may he live again ? 



All my war-service days I'd wait 
Till my discharge should come. — 
Thou'dst call, and I should answer thee: 
Thou'dst have a yearning toward thy handiwork. 

xiv, 13-15. 

He had confidently expected it. He exclaims as if 
with the voice of inspiration, 

Oh that my words were written now! 

Oh that they were recorded in the book! 

That with an iron pen and lead 

They were forever graven in the rock! 

But I, I know my Vindicator liveth, 

And, later^ on the dust shall stand; 

And, after skin of me they've shattered, this: 

That, from my flesh, shall I see God! xix, 23-26. 

V. Hence the visions in the Epilogue? The first 
sentence supplies to the vivid imagination of our 
gifted professor what he terms a fifth solution of 

THE MYSTERY. 

It consists, he thinks, in €t The Right Attitude to 
this Mystery; that the bold faith of Job, which could 
appeal to God against the justice of God's own visi- 
tation, was more acceptable to Him than the servile 
adoration of the Friends, who had sought to distort 
the facts in order to magnify God." 

Undoubtedly the truth needed to be emphasized 



UNSOLVED MYSTEEY 39 

that audacity is better far than blind servility. But 
what light does that throw on the final cause of un- 
deserved suffering. 1 

More relevant is the natural effect of such afflic- 
tion in softening the heart of a good man toward the 
wretched. Dr. Theodore T. Munger calls attention 
to the fact that before Job was stricken, his prayers 
appear limited to his own family; but, as we see in 
the Epilogue, when keen distress had done its work, 
he prayed for those who had cruelly wronged him. 
" And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he 
prayed for his ' Friends/ " The Talmud makes this 
lesson proverbial. 

If we may interpret thus literally, these two re- 
sults may be steps toward an explanation. 

So too the rich blessings lavishly bestowed upon 
the man in this strange sequel. 

But if his past unspeakable miseries were unnec- 
sarily and deliberately inflicted and so were real 
atrocities, and if his heart had always been extraor- 
dinarily tender, and if his audacity was as admirable 
as Abraham's splendid challenge, " Shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right ? " then what need 
of those almost inconceivable sessions of Heaven's 
Council at the first, or the artificial, crude, impossi- 
ble squaring of accounts at the last ? Surely, in our 
gropings for a clearing up of the mystery, such literal 
interpretation affords 

" No light, but rather darkness visible." 

1 Dr. Marshall appears to agree substantially with Moulton in 
these five so-called Solutions ; but, recollecting the Prologue and 
the language of St. Paul (2 Corinth, xii, 7), he suggests a sixth, 
" a messenger of Satan to buffet me." 



40 THE BOOK OF JOB 

If, rather, the ending, like the beginning, be re- 
garded as symbolical; then, discarding bald forms; 
looking beneath surface minutiae; omitting mystical 
names (Keziah, Jemimah, Keren-Happuch), ritual- 
istic ceremonies (sacrifices, burnt offerings, prayers), 
sacred numbers (two, three, four, seven, forty, one 
hundred, one thousand, two thousand, six thousand, 
fourteen thousand); — thus relegating to the back- 
ground details that serve but to set the outlines in 
relief and produce verisimilitude ; — may not our 
Arabian seer by these devices broadly allegorize the 
belief that there shall be an " all-hail here- 
after"? that sometime, somehow, somewhere, all 
darkness shall be dispelled, the abused vindicated, the 
lost restored, the wrongers converted, happiness out- 
weighing all past wretchedness be enjoyed, even the 
vanished sons and daughters made to reappear? 

May there not, then, be found in this book a 
world-long significance? the threefold division, yes- 
terday, to-day, forever? in the Prologue, emblematic 
pictures veiling yet suggesting the past eternity? in 
the Poem, vivid realities with baffling mysteries of 
the passing hour ? in the Epilogue, a prefigured con- 
summation of all material and spiritual blessings 
endlessly progressive in the seons yet to be ? Is this 
History ? 

Prologue and Epilogue, a succession of visions by 
some prehistoric Piers Plowman half revealing some 
of the deepest truths of the universe; the body of 
the poem a day-dream by some ancient Bunyan shat- 
tering great shams in ante- Christian theology; did 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION 41 

not the author build better than he knew? May we 
not call it all Allegory? 

VI. We venture to suggest for consideration a pos- 
sible SIXTH SOLUTION. 

Prom the earliest Egyptian priestly myth of a 
primal egg from which all things come, and after 
Pythagoras down to the present time, philosophers 
have been making shrewd guesses as to the origin, 
the constitution, and the successive stages of the 
universe. Some of the greatest have thought they 
apprehended a Mind of the Universe, a Spirit With- 
in, an Over-soul, an ■' Infinite and Eternal Energy, 
out of which all things proceed." 1 Poets have 
dreamed of communion with it as a Being endowed 
with instinct or even intelligence; a Power self- 
conscious, rejoicing in strength, beauty, swiftness; 
with tongues innumerable telling of ceaseless change 
and multitudinous life; an eternal Force, all-orig- 
inating, all-pervading ; perhaps self -directing, cer- 
tainly working automatically toward higher condi- 
tions. 

But, theories aside, and descending to the prosaic 
level of everyday experience and observation, what 
to common apprehension is this half visible, half 
invisible Creation, but a stupendous machine, with- 
out memory, foresight, or choice? a colossal engine, 
incapable of immobility, irresistible, irresponsible, re- 
morseless? seemingly an embodiment of force, vital- 
ity, appetency, something like instinctive tendency, 

1 E. g., see Plato's Laws (Book x, 899, 900); Vergil's Mneid. 
(vi, 724-727), Georgics (iv, 221-227); Pope's Essay on Man (i, 
iii, lines 9-22); Thomson's Castle of Indolence (ii, 47); Words- 
worth's Lines on Revisiting Tintern Abbey; Bryant's Thanatopsis ; 
Emerson's Essays, The Over-soul; Herbert Spencer, passim; etc. 



42 THE BOOK OF JOB 

yet never rising to personality, much less to kinship, 
friendship, or fellowship? a mysterious agent that 
knows no difference between man and brute, indiffer- 
ent to ethics, religion, philosophy, teleology? 

'Perhaps the first of modern authors to propound 
a full-fledged theory of evolution was John Milton. 
It was nearly two hundred and fifty years ago in the 
fifth book of his Paradise Lost, — the sublime lan- 
guage of the archangel Eaphael to Adam. 

Adam, one Almighty is, from whom 

All things proceed, and up to Him return^ 

If not depraved from good, created all 

Such to perfection; one first matter all, 

Endued with various forms, various degrees 

Of substance, and, in things that live, of life; 

But more refined, more spiritous and pure, 

As nearer to Him placed or nearer tending 

Each in their several active spheres assigned, 

Till body up to spirit work, in bounds 

Proportioned to each kind! So from the root 

Springs lighter the green stalk; from thence the leaves 

More aery; last the bright consummate flower 

Spirits odorous breathes. Etc. 

Paradise Lost, v, 468-480. 

This, of course, is the special evolution of man, yet 
incomplete ; " unorthodox and unphilosophieal," says 
Dr. Thomas Newton, though some such idea was en- 
tertained by able divines and primitive fathers of the 
church. The transformation of Chaos into Cosmos, 
described in the seventh book, is not by development 
but by miraculous creations. 

But long before Milton, and antedating by eighteen 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION 43 

hundred years, more or less, the theories of Lamarck, 
Wallace, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer, and the rest, 
Saint Paul had propounded something like the mod- 
ern doctrine, some phase of which is now accepted 
by all. He may have got a distant hint from Psalm 
cxxxix, 13, 14, 15, 16. Not unlikely, as he was writ- 
ing to the Romans, he may have been familiar with 
the elegant verses (724-727) of the sixth book of 
their greatest poem, or read like Vergil those Pla- 
tonic conceptions in the original Greek. 

Very startling and wondrously like inspiration is 
his description of some of the processes of Evolu- 
tion, the earliest clear statement in literature of its 
comprehensiveness and transforming power. The 
language of the Revised Versions, English and Amer- 
ican (1885 and 1901), of the 19th and following 
verses of the eighth of Romans, though of course not 
intended for a scientific formula, brings out certain 
great features; thus: 

"For the earnest expectation (the c eager look- 
ing forward/ or more exactly, the ( watching 
with outstretched head ' ) of the Creation ( i. e. 
of all * created things/ the material world and 
all of every kind therein, the universe) wait- 
eth for the revealing ('locketl!* or watcheth 
for the ' uncovering/ unveiling, unfolding, 
evolving) of the sons of God (of the 'born 
offspring' of God). Rom. viii, 19. (What is 
waited for is evidently the consummation of 
spiritual development in the manifest realiza- 
tion of the divine Fatherhood with all which 
that implies.) 



^44 THE BOOK OF JOB 

From this seeming recognition of the existence of 
a world-wide instinctive yearning, if not conscious 
movement, for a higher stage of being, the apostle 
next glances at the origin of this universal inclina- 
tion, a tendency not self-prompted but in obedience 
to a higher Power. 

"For the Creation (created universe) was sub- 
jected (' arranged under/ made subordinate) 
to vanity ( to ' unsubstantiality,' evanescence, 
vicissitude, transitoriness) not of its own will 
(not from any wish, choice, or purpose of its 
own), but by reason of Him (through the 
action of Him, or on account of Him) who 
subjected it (brought it under the arrange- 
ment), etc. 

In language sublimely simple in the next (21st) 
verse he states why the Maker of heaven and earth 
has impressed this longing upon the world. If we 
regard him as uninspired, we may well wonder that 
he dared to say of Jehovah, 

" Who subjected it in hope (who subjected the 
universe in confident expectation and trust) 
that the Creation itself (created things, ani- 
mate and inanimate) also (as well as we) 
shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
tion (shall be freed from enslavement to mor- 
tality, subjection to decay and death) into the 
liberty of the glory of the children of God 
(into the freedom and splendor, of the Sons 
of God, an emancipation like that of saints 
freed from this corruptible flesh and adopted 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION 45 

into the shining incorruption of the family on 
high). 

But this man looks deeper yet, deeper than any 
before him, into the mysterious processes of all the 
earth. Was ever more truth compressed into a few 
words than in the next verse? It surely is a flash of 
inspiration. 

" For we know that the whole Creation groan- 
eth ( sustenazei =i groaneth in unison and with 
straining or confinement) and travaileth in 
pain together ( sunodinei =■ experienceth ' la- 
bor pains ' unitedly, is in the throes of par- 
turition together, share th in agony) until now 
(down to the present moment. 

What are the unavoidable distresses of innocent 
creatures, casual agonies, pains, diseases, deaths by 
pestilence and famine, cataclysms and catastrophes 
that annihilate billions of animals and men — what 
are they but necessary birth-pangs evolving new 
forms of life, better foundations, higher levels, nobler 
species and races? 

" It must needs be that offences come." Why ? 
Is it because of freedom ? 

Conceive of a degree of liberty extending to every 
ultimate atom, ion, cell, every minutest infinitesimal 
particle ; all incapable of immobility, all moving nor- 
mally toward the goal of universal happiness, but 
all, with something like waywardness, liable for a 
while to go wrong from outside or inside pressure, 
attraction, or opposition. The currents will some- 



46 THE BOOK OF JOB 

times forsake their proper channels. Yet from the 
usual grooves and processes, which we term the course 
of nature, the omnipresent vital Energy sooner or 
later sweeps away the obstructive, the deleterious, 
the deadly — everything misplaced or vitiated by 
misdirected movement — and instantly proceeds to 
repair the waste, replace the lost, knit together the 
torn, and heal all wounds. 

"All is best, though oft we doubt." Not to be 
guilty of the egregious conceit of imagining that for 
Man, solely or chiefly, the universes come and go, 
or that for his benefit alone our solar system issued 
from the womb of Chaos, or even that for his sake 
and no other the " vast Typhcean " forces kneaded 
and moulded this planet of ours, peopling and un- 
peopling it a thousand times, Chaos giving birth to 
Cosmos; we must recognize the essential utility to 
him of the countless inevitable drawbacks, difficul- 
ties, disasters even, if we are to be other than mere 
machines, puppets, automatons, at best weaklings 
and cowards. Without struggle, no strength; with- 
out the possibility of vice, no virtue; without battle, 
no progress. 

So, through numberless ages, with many a refluent 
wave, the tide of being, obedient to a supernal at- 
traction, has risen higher and higher, mercifully 
merciless, sinking inferior forms and races in eutha- 
nasia in order that more eugenic, more precious 
might emerge — 

" Birth and death, an infinite ocean ; 
A seizing and giving the fire of the living." 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION 47 

Our philosophic apostle proceeds (verse 23) to 
show that, while yet dwelling in these tenements of 
clay, even those who have begun to pass from death 
to life must still suffer in this evolutionary process, 
though partially or wholly suppressing cries of pain. 

" And not only so (not only like the rest of 
the sensitive Creation), but ourselves also, who 
have the first-fruits of the Spirit (see Gala- 
tians i v, 22, 23), even we ourselves groan 
within ourselves, waiting for adoption (hui- 
othesian=z son's adoption), the redemption of 
our body (lit. the ransoming of our body, re- 
lease of our body on payment of debt. Wash- 
ington, dying, said to his physician, " This is 
a debt we all must pay! ") 

Verses 24, 25, inculcate hope and patience. In 
verse 26 follows the amazing declaration, 

" And in like manner the Spirit (the immanent 
God?) als\o helpeth (lit. takes part with to 
assist) our infirmities. For we know not how 
to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself 
maketh intercession for us. 

This assurance of tender and helpful sympathy 
calls to memory kindred passages in the Old Testa- 
ment. Such are the following : " His soul was 
grieved for the misery of Israel." 2 " In all their 
afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of His 
presence saved them : in His love and in His pity He 

1 " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." 

2 Judges. 



48 THE BOOK OF JOB 

redeemed them." 1 " Can a woman forget her suck- 
ing child, that she should not have compassion on 
the son of her womb? Yea, these may forget, yet 
will I not forget thee." 2 " For a small moment 
have I forsaken thee . . . but with everlasting kind- 
ness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy 
redeemer." 3 

The 26th verse closes with an intensity of ex- 
pression rarely paralleled — 

" maketh intercession for us with groanings 
which cannot be uttered." 

What can this signify, if not that the all-pervading 
divine Spirit not only suffers unspeakably in the 
evolutionary throes, but that His attitude of silence 
in the midst of sharpest pangs constitutes a perpetual 
appeal in our behalf? 

" Intercession for us " ! The phrase is repeated 
in verse 34, where the writer represents that his Mas- 
ter is exalted to the eternal Presence — 

" Who is he that condemnethf It is Christ 
Jesu$ that died, yea rather, that was raised 
from the dead, who is at thd right hand of 
God, who also maketh intercession for us." 
Figuratively, of course. 

The scientists are beginning to echo at last the 
words of Paul's masterpiece spoken on Mars Hill, 
" In Him we live and move and have our being." 
Yet we cannot quite dispense with the Scriptural 
anthropomorphism. Speaking, after the manner of 

1 Isaiah lxiii, 9; a xlix, 15; 8 liv, 7, 8. 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION 49 

men, of the infinite Father, may we not venture to 
say with reverence that He not only loves us more 
than any earthly parent can love his child, but that 
He is more sensitive than we to every necessary pain, 
the chief mourner in every unavoidable bereavement? 
that His nerves and heart are everywhere? that 

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body Nature is, and God the Soul " ? 

Elsewhere the apostle utters the significant cau- 
tion/ " Grieve not (lit. pain not) the Holy Spirit." 
Is not this a recognition of a suffering which may 
far transcend the inevitable pains of development? 
Is it not tantamount to an assertion that man's every 
sin wounds his infinite Friend? nay, even that need- 
less and wanton distress, inflicted upon any creature, 
is sharply felt by Him? Must we not add to this, 
that whoever thinks an evil thought, or utters a 
cruel word, or does a shameful deed, stings the omni- 
present, supersensitive, all-loving Soul? and, per 
contra, every uplifting thought, every loving word, 
every merciful deed gladdens what Whittier calls 
" the Tender Heart of All » ? 

" For the love of God is broader 
Than the measure of man's mind, 
And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind." 

Does this sympathetic participation throw light 
upon the supposed vicarious sacrifice seemingly al- 
leged in the fifty-third of Isaiah and often in the 

i-Ephes. iv, 30. 



50 THE BOOK OF JOB 

New Testament? Does our latest and deepest sci- 
ence of the material universe tend thus to confirm 
the accepted climax of the Christian faith, as stated 
by the Cilician seer ? 

"But 'God commendeth his own (heautou) 
love toicard us, 1 in that, while we were yet 
sinners, Christ died for us." 

Hurt most of all, and yet most pitying, most willing 
to pay the price of rescue, when any have deviated 
from the path of rectitude? The crippled child is 
dearest. Of the hundred sheep, not the " ninety 
and nine " that were safe, but the one that was lost, 
was the object of the shepherd's tenderest solicitude, 
his most strenuous efforts, his costliest sacrifice. 
See surface beneath surface, till we reach the founda- 
tions of the universe, in the symbolism ! 

" Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way, 

That mark out the mountain's track ? " 
" They were shed for one that had gone astray, 

Ere the shepherd could bring him back." 



In the 27th verse the virtually intercessional atti- 
tude of the World Spirit is affirmed to be in accord 
with the will of the Supreme Being. Only atheists 
will deny this. 

In verse 28 is the comprehensive assertion which 
most evolutionists accept as an approximate if not 
complete statement of the result thus far. 



a 



And we know that all things work together 
for good to them that love God" 

1 Bom. v, 8. 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION" 51 

It adds an assumption that such are called accord- 
ing to a divine purpose ; and in verse 30 we read, 

" For whom He did foreknow, He also did pre- 
destinate to be conformed to the image of His 
Bon, that he might be the firstborn among 
many brethren." 

Verse 30 recognizes such new birth as a glorification : 

" Moreover whom He did predestinate, them 
He also called; and whom He called, them He 
also justified; and whom He justified, them 
He also glorified" 

This new birth into immortal life, with all which 
it implies, is, according to our saint's belief, the 
final outcome and crowning glory of the vast ceaseless 
movement. He had doubtless caught the idea from 
his Master, whose first words to the astonished ruler 
that came to him by night were 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man 
be born again (lit. born from above), he can- 
not see the kingdom of God." 

John iii, 3-8. 

The author of the fourth Gospel, apparently con- 
vinced that Jesus was " the Word," the loftiest and 
dearest utterance of the Infinite One, asserts his di- 
vinity and his primacy in this grand consummation; 
thus: 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
. . • He was in the world, and the world was 



52 THE BOOK OF JOB 

made by (or through) him, and the world 
knew him not. He came unto his own, and his 
own received him not. But as many as re- 
ceived him, to them gave he power to become 
sons of God, even to them that believe on his 
name: Which were born, not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
but of God. And the Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth." 

John i, 1; 10-14. 

Indirectly or directly the whole of the eighth chap- 
ter of Romans deals with this evolution. The great 
apostle has many passages of surpassing eloquence, 
but none that rise higher than its magnificent con- 
clusion : 

" Who shall separate us from the love of 

Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or per- 
secution, or faminej or nakedness, or peril, 

or sword? (As it is written, ' For thy sake 
we are killed all the day long; we are ac- 
counted as sheep for the daughter.') 

Nay, in all these things we are more than 
conquerors through him that loved us! 

For I am persuaded, that neither death nor 
life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, 
nor things present nor things to come, nor 
height nor depth, nor any other creation, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! " 



LIGHT OF EVOLUTION 53 

May we not, then, with some confidence conclude 
that the Book of Job, like Milton's Paradise Lost, 
is essentially allegorical? 

Each is a world poem. Paradise Lost embraces 
in its scope all space, all time, all matter, all beings. 
The Book of Job in its scope treats of the condition 
of the human race on this planet, with faint glimpses 
of its past and its future. 

Paradise Lost is an attempted solution of a baf- 
fling problem, the origin of moral evil ; the beginning, 
significance, and probable result of the incessant 
world-wide conflict of Eight with Wrong. The Book 
of Job is an attempted solution of the equally baf- 
fling problem, the Mystery of Undeserved Suffering; 
its final cause, its meaning, and its issue. 

Given perfect freedom of the mind in all intelli- 
gent beings with constitutions and environments like 
ours, moral evils must sometimes ensue. Given 
perfect subjection of all matter to unceasing motion 
in accordance with inflexible laws, physical evils will 
inevitably arise. But all evils are to be changed 
from stumbling-blocks to stepping-stones leading to 
higher levels. 

The Pounder of Christianity was the first to sound 
the key-note of Evolution. The talismanic word 
that was to unlock all mysteries, " Ye must be born 
again," was first spoken by Him. Perhaps none 
even now appreciate its power. 

Much meditating on the mysteries of the universe, 
Saint Paul was the first to announce the extension of 
the processes of Evolution from the individual soul 
to all created things in nature. 



54 



THE BOOK OF JOB 



As we have seen, he represents the universe as in 
perpetual throes of new births; shows the omnipres- 
ent ceaseless activity of the Infinite Spirit in our be- 
half, its tender sympathy, its sufferings acute but 
speechless with us and for us ; 

" From seeming evil still educing good, 
And better thence again, and better still 
In infinite progression." 

In this light may we not gain a new view of the 
great Sacrifice on Calvary? yes, and the fathomless 
depth of the motive which prompted it? 

God so loved the world ! 



THE PEKSONS 

The Lord Jehovah 

The Sons of God (not speaking) 

The Satan 

Job 

Job's Wife 

Messengers 

Eliphaz the Temanite, Friend of Job 

Bildad the Shuhite, Friend of Job 

Zophar the Naamathite, Friend of Job 

Elihu the Buzite 

Spectators (not speaking) 

Voice from the Whirlwind 



55 



The poetry of the Book of Job is not only- 
equal to that of any other of the sacred writ- 
ings, but is superior to them all, except those 
of Isaiah alone. ... A peculiar glow of fancy 
and strength of description characterize the 
author. No writer whatever abounds so much 
in metaphors. He may be said not to describe, 
but to render visible, whatever he treats of. 
— 'Dr. Hugh Blair 2 Lectures on Rhet., 1783. 

This poem, the Book of Job, is in many re- 
spects the most remarkable production of any 
age or country. . . . What is most remarkable 
in it is the skill with which all the delinea- 
tions of the heart and all the descriptions of 
nature are made subservient to the illustration 
of one important moral subject. — Dr. George 
R. Noyes, An Amended Version of the Book of 
Job, 1827. 

The Book of Job represents the mind of a 
good man not enlightened by an actual revela- 
tion, but seeking about for one. In no other 
book is the desire and necessity of a Mediator 
so intensely expressed. The personality of 
God, the i am of the Hebrews, is most vividly 
impressed on the book. — Coleridge, Table 
Talk, pub. 1835. 



56 



PEOLOGUE 

CHAP. I 

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose 1 
name was Job ; and that man was blameless and 
upright, and one that feared God and turned 
away from evil. 

And there were born unto him seven sons and 2 
three daughters. 

His substance also was seven thousand sheep 3 
and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke 
of oxen and five hundred she-asses and a very 
great household ; so that this man was the great- 
est of all the children of the East. 

And his sons used to go and hold a feast in 4 
the house of each upon his day; and they used to 
send and call for their three sisters to eat and to 
drink with them. 

And it was so, when the days of their feast- 5 
ing were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified 
them, and rose up early in the morning and of- 
fered burnt offerings according to the number 
of them all : for Job said, " It may be that my 
sons have sinned, and renounced God in their 
hearts." Thus did Job continually. 

Now there was a day when the sons of God 6 
came to present themselves before Jehovah, and 
the Satan came also among them. 

57 



58 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. I 

And Jehovah said unto the Satan, " Whence 7 
comest thou ? " 

Then the Satan answered Jehovah and said, 
" From going to and fro in the earth and from 
walking up and down in it/* 

And Jehovah said unto the .Satan, "Hast 8 
thou considered my servant Job? for there is 
none like him in the earth, a blameless and an 
upright man, one that feareth God and turneth 
aside from evil." 

Then the Satan answered Jehovah and said, 9 

" Doth Job fear God for nought ? Hast thou 10 
not made a hedge about him and about his house 
and about all that he hath on every side ? Thou 
hast blessed the work of his hands, and his sub- 
stance is increased in the land. 

But put forth thy hand now and touch all 11 
that he hath, and he will renounce thee to thy 
face." 

And Jehovah said unto the Satan, "Behold, 12 
all that he hath is in thy power: only upon 
himself put not forth thy hand." So the Satan 
went forth from the presence of Jehovah. 

And it fell on a day when his sons and his 13 
daughters were eating, and drinking wine, in 
their eldest brother's house, 

That there came a messenger unto Job and 14 
said: 

" The oxen were plowing, 

And the asses feeding beside them; 



PEOLOGUE 59 

CHAP. I 

And the Sabeans fell upon them 15 

And took them away: 

Yea, they have slain the servants with the 
edge of the sword, 
And only I am escaped alone to tell thee." 

While he was yet speaking, there came also 16 
another and said: 

" The fire of God is fallen from heaven, 

And hath burned up the sheep and the serv- 
ants 

And consumed them ; 

And only I am escaped alone to tell thee ! " 

While he was yet speaking, there came also 17 
another and said: 

" The Chaldeans made three bands, 

And made a raid upon the camels, 

And have taken them away, 

Yea, and slain the young men with the edge 
of the sword; 

And only I am escaped alone to tell thee ! " 

While he was yet speaking, there came also 18 
another and said: 

Thy sons and thy daughters 

Were eating, and drinking wine, in their eld- 
est brother's house; 

And behold, 19 

There came a great wind from over the wil- 
derness, 



60 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. I 

And smote the four corners of the house, 

And it fell upon the young men, 

And they are dead; 

And only I am escaped alone to tell thee ! " 

Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and 20 
shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, 
and worshiped; and he said: 

" Naked came I from my mother's mold, 21 

And naked thither shall return! 

Jehovah gave ; and Jehovah taketh away : 

Blessed be Jehovah's name ! " 

In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God 22 
with aught unseemly. 

chap, n 
Again there was a day when the sons of God 1 
came to present themselves before Jehovah, and 
the Satan came also among them to present him- 
self before Jehovah. 

And Jehovah said unto the Satan, "Prom 2 
whence comest thou ? " And the Satan an- 
swered Jehovah and said, " From going to and 
fro in the earth, and from walking up and down 
in it." 

And Jehovah said unto the Satan, "Hast 3 
thou considered my servant Job? For there is 
none like him in the earth, a blameless and up- 
right man, one that feareth God and turneth 
aside from evil : and he still holdeth fast his in- 



PROLOGUE 61 

chap, n 
tegrity, although thou movedst me against him 
to destroy him without cause." 

And the Satan answered Jehovah and said, 4 
" Skin for skin I " yea, all that a man hath will 
he give for his life. 

But put forth thy hand now, and touch his 5 
bone and his flesh, and he will renounce thee to 
thy face." 

And Jehovah said to the Satan, " Behold, he 6 
is in thy hand : only spare his life." 

.So the Satan went forth from the presence 7 
of Jehovah, and smote Job with sore boils from 
the sole of his foot unto his crown. 

And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself 8 
with : and he sat down among the ashes. 

Then said his wife unto him, " Dost thou still 9 
hold fast thine integrity? Eenounce God, and 
die ! " 

But he said unto her, iC Thou speakest as one 10 
of the impious women speaketh. What! shall 
we receive good at the hand of God, and shall 
we not receive evil ? " 

In all this did Job not sin with his lips. 

Now when Job's three friends heard of all 11 
this evil that was come upon him, they came 
every one from his own place; Eliphaz the 
Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar 
the Naamathite : and they made an appoint- 
ment together to come to bemoan him and to 
comfort him. 

And when they lifted up their eyes afar off 12 



62 THE BOOK OF JOB 1 

1 

CHAP. II 

and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and 
wept: and they rent every one his robe, and 
sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. 

So they sat down with him upon the ground 13 
seven days and seven nights; and none spake a 
word unto him: for they saw that his grief was 
very great. 



THE BOOK OF JOB 

MALEDICTION AND COMPLAINT 

chap, m 
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. ]_ 
And Job answered and said : — 

Perish the day ! — in it I was born ! 3 

And the night ! — it was said, A man *s con- 
ceived ! 

Be that day darkness ! 4 

God from above regard it not, 

Nor light upon it shine ! 

Darkness and Death-shade claim it theirs! 5 

Cloud on it dwell! 

Affright it darkenings of the day! 

That night ! — thick darkness on it seize : 6 

Among the year's days let it not rejoice; 
Into the number of the months not come! 

Lo, barren be that night; 7 

Enter no joyful voice therein! 

Curse it who curse the day; 8 

The skilled to rouse Leviathan. 

Dark be its twilight stars: 9 

Look it for light, but — none! 
Nor see the eyelashes of Morn. 

63 



64 THE BOOE OF JOB 

CHAP. Ill 

Because it shut not up my doors of birth, 10 

Nor from mine eyes hid sorrow. 

Why died I not from birth? 11 

Come forth from mother and expire? 
Why were knees ready for me? 12 

Or why the breasts that I should suck? 

For now I'd lain down and been quiet; 13 

I'd slept: then had been rest for me, 

With kings and counsellors of earth, 14 

Who for themselves built places desolate; 

Or princes that had gold, 15 

Who filled their house with silver: 

Or like hid birth untimely, I 'd not been; 16 

As babes light never saw. 

The wicked there cease troubling, 
And there the weary are at rest; 
The bondmen rest together; 
Taskmaster's voice they hear not: 
Both small and great are there, 
And servant from his master's free. 

Why is light given the wretched, 

And life to the bitter in soul ? — 

Who long for death, but it is not, 

And delve for it more than treasures hid; 

Who joy to exultation, 

Are glad when they can find the grave ! — 



17 




18 




19 




20 




21 




22 





THE DISCUSSION 65 

CHAP. Ill 

Unto a man whose way is hid, 23 

And whom God hath hedged in ? 
So to my food's face come my sighings, 24 

And out like water are my moanings poured: 

For I feared a fear, and it is come upon me, 25 

And to me cometh what I dread. 
At ease I am not, nor am quiet, 26 

Nor have I rest: but Misery's come! 

CHAP. IV 

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said : \ 

Should venture word with thee, wilt thou be 2 

grieved ? 
But who from speaking can refrain? 

Behold, thou hast instructed many, 3 

And strengthened drooping hands ; 
Thy words the falling have upheld, 4 

And bowing knees hast thou made strong! 

But now to thee 'tis come, and thou art faint; 5 

It toucheth thee, and thou 'rt dismayed ! 

Thy piety not thy confidence? 6 

Thy ways' integrity thy hope? 

Eemember, pray, Who, innocent, hath perished? 7 
Or, Where were saints cut off ? 

As I have seen, those plowing sin 8 

And sowing sorrow reap the same. 



66 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. IV 

By breath of God they perish, 9 

And by His nostrils' blast are they consumed. 

The lion's roar and voice of lion fierce 10 

And teeth of lions young, are broken. 

The lion old for lack of prey doth perish, 11 

And the she-lion's whelps abroad are scattered. 

Now stealthily a word was brought me, 12 

And thereof caught mine ear a whisper. 

In thoughts distract from visions of the night, 13 
In falling of deep sleep on men, 
A Terror met me and a trembling, 14 

iWhich made my many bones to shake. 

A spirit glided then before my face — 

Bristled the hair of my flesh — 

It stood, but I could not discern its form: 16 

Before mine eyes an apparition! 

Silence ! — and I heard a voice, 

Mortal, before God, just? 17 

Man, pure before his Maker? 

Lo, in His servants putteth He no trust, 

And to His angels He imputeth frailty ! 

How much more them that in clay houses dwell ! 19 

'Who, their foundation in the dust — 

They 're crushed before the moth ! 

'Twixt morn and eve they 're beaten down : 20 

Unheeded they forever perish. 



THE DISCUSSION 67 

CHAP. IV 

Is not their tent-cord torn up in them? 
They die and not in wisdom. 

CHAP. V 

Call, now: will there be answering thee? 1 

And unto which of the Holy wilt thou turn? 
For wrath the foolish killeth, 2 

And envy slayeth the silly. 

I, I have seen the foolish taking root, 3 

But suddenly I cursed his habitation: 

Far off from safety are his children, 4 

And in the gate they 're crushed, 

Nor any to deliver. 

'Whose crop the hungry eateth up, '5 

And taketh it even out of thorns ; 

And for their wealth the snare doth pant! 

For not from dust affliction cometh, 6 

Nor springeth trouble from the ground; 
But unto trouble man is born, 7 

As upward fly the sons of flame. 

But I — I >d seek to God, 8 

And unto God commit my cause : 

Who doeth great things and unsearchable, 9 

Things marvelous, innumerable; 
Who giveth rain upon the earth, 10 

And sendeth waters on the fields; 



68 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. V 

Setting aloft the downcast, 11 

And raised to safety are the mourning. 

Devices of the crafty frustrating; 12 

Nor purpose can their hands perform. 

The wise in their own cunning He ensnareth ; 13 

And counsel of the crooked — headlong it ! 

They meet with darkness in the day, 14 

And grope at noon as night. 

But from the sword He saveth, from their 

mouth ! 15 

Even from the mighty's hand the needy; 
So to the poor there 's hope, 16 

And Wickedness doth shut her mouth. 

Lo, happy the man ! — him God correcteth ! 17 

Then spurn not thou the Almighty's chastening. 

For He — He maketh sore, and bindeth up ; 18 

He woundeth, and His hands make whole. 

In troubles six He shall deliver thee : 19 

Even in seven shall no evil touch thee : 

In famine He '11 from death redeem thee, 20 

And from the hand of the sword in war. 

From the tongue's scourge thou shalt be hid, 21 

Nor dread destruction when it cometh. 

At famine and destruction thou wilt laugh : 22 

Nor be afraid of beasts of earth. 



THE DISCUSSION 69 

CHAP. V 

For with the stones of the field thy league; 23 

And the beasts of the field shall be thy friends: 

And Peace thy tent thou 'It know ; 24 

And thou thy fold shalt visit, and nought miss. 

Thou *lt know, too, great thy seed, 25 

Even as earth's grass thine offspring : 

In full age to the grave wilt come, 26 

As shock of corn up cometh in its season. 

Lo, this! We've searched it out — it so! — 27 
Hear it, and thou know for thyself. 

CHAP. VI 

Then answered Job and said: 1 

Oh that — to weigh ! — were my impatience 2 

weighed ! 
And with it my calamity were lifted in the 

scales ! 
For heavier were it than the sea's sand now. 3 

For this cause have my words been wild : 

For with me the Almighty's arrows, 4 

Whose poison drinketh up my spirit: 

God's terrors range themselves (against) me. 

Doth wild ass bray o'er tender grass ? 5 

Or loweth ox aver his fodder ? 

Can savorless be eaten without salt? 6 



70 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. VI 

Or in an egg's white is there taste? 

To touch, my soul ref useth ! 7 

They — as my loathsome meat -*— ! 

Oh might my asking come, 8 

And God my longing grant ! 

Might please Ood even to crush me, 9 

Let loose His hand and cut me off ! 

Then should I yet have comfort; 10 

Yea, I 'd exult midst pain that spareth not : 
For I We not hid the words of the Holy One. 

What — strength of me ? — that I should wait ; 11 
And what my end ? — that I prolong my breath. 
My strength ! — the strength of stones ? 12 

My flesh ! — of brass ? 

Is not my help within me — nothingness? 13 

And, driven away from me, abiding prosperous- 
ness? 

Unto one melting ! — kindness from his friend ; 14 
Even forsaketh he the fear of the Almighty. 

Brook-like my brethren deal deceitfully: 15 

As stream of brooks they pass away ; 
Those dark from ice, 16 

Wherein the snow is hid : 

While warm they wax, they vanish : 17 

When it is hot, they're from their place con- 
sumed. 



THE DISCUSSION 71 

CHAP. VI 

Caravans by their way are turned aside; 18 

Up to the waste they go, and perish ! 

The troops of Tema look; 19 

The companies of Sheba wait for them: 
Chagrined they are, because they trusted: 20 

Thither they come and are confounded. 

For ye are nothing now; 21 

Ye see a Terror, and are dismayed. 

Did I say, Bring to me? 22 

Or, Of your wealth make me a present? 
Or, From the foe's hand rescue me ? 23 

Or, From the mighty's hand redeem me ? 

Teach me, and I '11 be still ; 24 

And make me know wherein I 've erred. 

How forcible are words of uprightness! 25 

But what doth your upbraiding prove? 

Words to reprove imagine ye, 26 

Although as wind the words of the despairing? 

Even upon the fatherless ye 'd cast, 27 

And of your friend make merchandize. 

Now, therefore, be content ; look on me ! 28 

For, to your faces — if I lie ! 

I pray you, turn; let there be no unfairness: 29 

Yea, turn again ! — in it my righteousness. 



72 THE BOOK OF JOB 

t 

CHAP. VI 

Injustice on my tongue? 30 

Cannot my taste discern things mischievous ? 

, CHAP. VII 

War-service not? to man on earth? 1 

His days, too, like a hireling's days! 

As servant panteth for the shade, 2 

And hireling looketh for his wages, 
So am I made to inherit months of misery, 3 

And nights of weariness my portion. 

When I lie down I say, When shall I rise? 4 

But long 's the night ; 

And I am full of tossings to and fro 

Till dawn of day. 

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of 5 

dust! 
Closeth my skin and breaketh out afresh. 

Swifter my days than weaver's shuttle, 6 

And without hope are spent. 

Eemember that my life — a breath ! 7 

Mine eye shall see good nevermore. 
The eye that looketh on me shall not see me : 8 

Thine eyes upon me; but — I shall not be. 

Cloud is consumed and vanisheth away; 9 

So who to Sheol goeth down shall not come up : 



THE DISCUSSION 73 

CHAP. VII 

No more unto his house shall he return, 10 

Nor his place know him more. 

Therefore I will not curb my mouth : 11 

In anguish of my spirit I will speak ; 
In my soul's bitterness I will complain. 

A sea, or a sea-monster I? 12 

That over me thou sett'st a watch? 

Whene'er I say, My bed shall comfort me, 13 

My couch take from my plaint, 

Then scarest thou me with dreams, 14 

And terrifiest me through visions, 

And my soul chooseth strangling, 15 

Death rather than — my bones! 

I loathe — 16 

I would not live alway: 

Let me alone; 

For my days — breath ! 

Man ! what ? — that thou shouldst magnify him, 17 
And set thy heart upon him, 

And every morning visit him, 18 

Every moment try him ! 

How long wilt thou not look away from me, 19 

Nor let me alone till I swallow my saliva? 

Sin I? what do I unto thee? Watcher thou 20 
of men ! 



74 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. VII 

Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee, 

So that I am a burden to myself ? 

And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, 21 

And take my wickedness away ? 

For now I shall lie down in dust, 

And thou betimes wilt seek me ; but I — not ! 

chap, vm 
Bildad the Shuhite answered then, and said: 1 

Till when wilt thou speak these? 2 

And thy mouth's words, a mighty wind? 

Judgment doth God pervert? 3 

Or the Almighty Tightness wrest? 

If thy sons sinned against Him, 4 

And into their transgression's hand He cast 

them — 
If thou wouldst seek to God betimes, 5 

And supplication make to the Almighty — 
If pure and upright thou — 

He surely now would wake for thee 6 

And prosperous make thy righteous habitation: 
'And were small thy beginning, 7 

Yet should thy end grow very great. 

For ask, I pray thee, of the former age, 8 

And to their fathers' search apply : 



THE DISCUSSION 75 

CHAP. VIII 

For we, of yesterday, and nothing know, 9 

Because our days on earth — a shadow ! 

Shall they not teach thee, tell thee, 10 

And utter words out of their heart ? 

Can rush thrive without mire? 11 

Water without, flag grow? 

While, in its greenness yet, it *s not cut down, 12 
It withereth ere any herb. 

Thus paths of all that God forget; 13 

And hope of the profane shall perish: 

Whose confidence shall be cut off, 14 

His trust a spider's house. 

He on his house may lean, but stand it shall not : 15 
He may hold fast thereby, but it shall not en- 
dure. 

Green in the sun's face he, 16 

And forth his shoots over his garden go : 
Its roots are twined about a heap ; 17 

Seeth a house of stones. 

If from his place he be destroyed, 18 

Then — shall deny him, I Ve not seen thee ! 

Lo, this the joy of his way ! 19 

And from the dust shall others spring. 



76 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. VIII 

Behold, God will not cast away the perfect, 20 

Nor take the evil-doers* hand! 

He yet will fill thy month with laughter, 21 

Thy lips with shouts of joy. 

With shame shall they be clothed that hate thee, 22 
And the wicked's tent be — nothingness! 



CHAP. IX 



Then answered Job and said: 



Of course I know that so: 2 

But how can man be just with God ? 

If to contend with Him he wished, 3 

He could not answer Him one of a thousand. 

Wise in heart and mighty in strength ! 4 

Who against Him hath hardened and been safe? 

Who mountains moveth and they know not; 5 

Who in His anger overturneth them : 

Who shaketh Earth out of her place; 

And tremble her pillars ! 

Who Sun commandeth, and it riseth not; 7 

And sealeth up the stars ! 

Who alone stretcheth out the heavens, 8 

And treadeth on the ocean's heights. 



THE DISCUSSION 77 

CHAP. IX 

Who maketh Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, 9 

And Chambers of the South. 

Who doeth great, past finding out; 10 

Yea, wondrous without number. 

Lo, by me goeth He, but I see not! 11 

He glideth on also, but I perceive Him not. 

Behold, He seizeth! Who can turn Him back? 12 
Who 11 say to Him, What doest thou ? 

His anger God will not withdraw: 13 

Helpers of Eahab stoop beneath Him: 

How much less 7, should I Him answer ! 14 

Choose out my words with Him ! 
Whom, though I 'm righteous, I 'd not answer; 15 
I would make supplication to my judge. 

If I had called, and He had answered me; 16 

I 'd not believe He hearkened to my voice : 

He who with tempest breaketh me, 17 

And multiplieth without cause my wounds : 

He will not suffer me to take mv breath, 18 

But filleth me with bitternesses. 

If, as to strength, lo, strong! 19 

And if of justice, who '11 set me a time ? 



78 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. IX 

Though I am righteous, my own mouth will 20 

make me guilty; 
I perfect, it will prove me wrong : 
I perfect ? I 'd not know my breath ! 21 

My life I do despise. 

It — one ! therefore I say 22 

Perfect and wicked He destroyeth ! 

If scourge slay suddenly, 23 

At trial of the innocent He '11 mock ! 
Earth 's given into the Wicked's hand : 24 

He covereth its judges' faces ! 

If not, 

Who is it, then? 

Swifter than courier now my days: 25 

They fly away; they see no good. 
As skiffs of reed they pass, 26 

As swoopeth eagle on the prey. 

Say I, I will forget my plaint, 27 

Leave off my looks, and brighten up ; 

I am afraid of all my sorrows : 28 

I know thou 'It not declare me innocent : 

I, I am to be guilty ! 29 

Why toil I, then, in vain ? 

Wash I myself with snow, 30 

And cleanse my hands with lye, 



THE DISCUSSION 79 

CHAP. IX 

Yet thou wilt plunge me in the ditch, 31 

And my own clothing shall abhor me ! 

For should I answer Him, not man like me, 32 

Should we together enter into judgment — 
No daysman is betwixt us 33 

Might lay hand on us both. 

Let Him remove His rod from me, 34 

And let His terror not affright me, 
I 'd speak and fear Him not: > 35 

For not so I within myself. 

chap, x 

My soul is weary of my life. 1 

I will let loose upon me my complaint ; 

In my soul's bitterness I '11 speak : 

I '11 say to God, Do not condemn me ; 2 

Show me why thou contendest with me. 

Good unto thee thou shouldst oppress? 3 

Despise thy handiwork? 

And shine upon the wicked's counsel? 

Hast eyes of flesh? 4 

Seest thou as seeth man? 

Thy days as days of mortal ? 5 

As days of man thy years ? 

That thou inquirest after my iniquity, 6 

And searchest for my sin? 



80 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. X 

Upon thy knowledge that I am not wicked, 7 

And none delivering from thy hand ! 

Thy hands have fashioned me, 8 

And wrought me wholly round about; 
And thou destroyest me ! 

Remember, I beseech thee, . 9 

Thou 'st molded me as clay, 

And wilt thou bring me into dust again? 

Hast thou not poured me out as milk, 10 

And curdled me like cheese ? 

Clothed me with skin and flesh, 11 

And interwoven me with bones and sinews ! 

Life thou hast granted me and loving kindness, 12 
And thy care hath preserved my breath. 

Yet in thy heart thou hidedst these: — 13 

I know that with thee — this: — - 

If I sin, then thou markest me, 14 

And from my guilt wilt not acquit me : 

If wicked I, 15 

Wo unto me ! 

And righteous I, 

I shall not lift my head ; 

With ignominy filled, 

And looking on my misery ! 



THE DISCUSSION 81 

CHAP. X 

And if — lift up itself, 16 

Thou as a lion huntest me, 

And again show'st thyself upon me marvelous ! 

Thy witnesses against me thou renewest, 17 

And on me dost increase thine indignation ; 
Changes and hosts against me ! 

Then why from mother hast thou brought me 18 

forth ? — 
Had I breathed out, and not an eye had seen me! 
Had been as though I had not been ! 
From womb to grave been borne ! 

Not few my days ? 20 

Leave off ! let me alone ; 

That I may brighten up a little 

Before I go, and not return, 21 

To darkness' land and Shadow of Death, 

A land of gloom as darkness dense — 22 

Death-shade and order none — 

Even the light as darkness ! 

« 

CHAP. XI 

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said : 1 

Should not the multitude of words be answered ? 2 
And should a man of lips be counted just ? 
Thy boastings make men silence keep? 3 

And mockest thou ? and shaming, none ? 



82 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XI 

For thou say'st, Pure my doctrine; 4 

And in thine eyes I 'in clean ! 

But oh that God would speak, 5 

And open His lips against thee, 
And show thee Wisdom's secrets ! 6 

For double folds to Wisdom. 

Know, then, that God doth cause to be forgotten 
For thee of thy iniquity. 

Canst thou search out the depths of Deity? 7 

Find out the Almighty to perfection? 

Heights of the heavens ! 8 

What canst thou do ? 

Deeper than Sheol ! 

What canst thou know? 

Longer its measure than the earth, 9 

And broader than the sea. 

If He pass through and let shut up, 10 

And an assembly call, then who can hinder Him ? 

For He, He knoweth evil men, 11 

And seeth wickedness, although He mark it not. 

And man, made hollow, will wax wise ! 12 

And wild-ass foal will man be born ! 

If thou thy heart set right, 13 

And toward Him stretch out thy hands — 



THE DISCUSSION 83 

CHAP. XI 

If in thy hand iniquity, put it far off, 14 

Nor let unrighteousness dwell in thy tents — 

Surely thou then shalt lift thy face without a 15 

spot; 
Yea, solid shalt thou be, and shalt not fear : 

For thou, thou misery shalt forget; 16 

As waters passed by, shalt remember. 

And life shall rise above the noonday : 17 

Darkness shall be as morning; 

And thou shalt be secure, 18 

Because there's hope: 

And thou shalt look around, 

And take thy rest in safety : 

Aye, down shalt lie 19 

And none making afraid: 

And many shall make suit to thee. 

But the ungodly's eyes shall waste away, 20 

And flight shall from them fly, 

And breathing out the life their hope ! 

CHAP. XII 

Then answered Job and said: 1 

A people ye, no doubt! 2 

And wisdom with you '11 die ! - 



84 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XII 

But heart to me as well as you; 3 

I not below you falling: 

And with whom are not such as these? 

A laughing-stock to his neighbor I ? m become ! 4 

Calling on God! and him He answered! 
Just! upright! laughing-stock! 

In thoughts at ease, contempt toward calamity, 5 
Eeady for faltering foot. 

The tents of robbers prosper ! 6 

And, to those angering God, security! 
To him who bringeth in his hand a god ! 

But ask the beasts now, and they '11 teach thee, 7 

And winged of these heavens, and they will tell 

thee; 
Or speak to Earth, and it will make thee know, 8 
And the sea's fishes shall to thee declare : 

In all of these, who doth not know 9 

That thisj Jehovah's hand hath wrought? 
In whose hand, life of every living thing, 10 

And soul of all the flesh of man. 

Doth not the ear test words, 11 

And palate for itself taste food ? 

Among the aged, Wisdom? 12 

And length of days, intelligence? 



THE DISCUSSION 85 

\ 

CHAP. XII 

Wisdom and might with Him: 13 

Foresight to Him and skill unerring! 

Behold, He breaketh down, 14 

And it cannot be built again ! 

He shutteth up a man, 

And there can be no opening. 

Lo, waters He withholdeth, 15 

And they dry up : 
Again He looseth them, 
And they overturn the earth ! 

'Power with Him and truth eternal ! 16 

His the deceived and the deceiver — 

Conducting counsellors despoiled away — 17 

And magistrates He maketh fools : 

The bond of kings He looseth, 18 

And bindeth girdle on their loins : 

Conducting priests away despoiled — 19 

And the established He hurleth headlong : 

Turning aside the trusty's lip — 20 

And taketh away the elders' wisdom: 
Contempt He poureth upon princes, 21 

And looseth girdle of the strong: 

Deeps out of darkness laying bare — 22 

And bringeth out to light the Shadow of Death : 



86 THE BOOK OF JOB 

/ 

CHAP. XII 

Increasing nations — 23 

And He destroyeth them: 
Spreading out nations — 
And He in-bringeth them : 

Heart of earth's people's chiefs taking away — 24 
And He maketh them wander in a pathless waste. 
They grope in darkness without light; 25 

And He maketh them stagger as drunken! 

CHAP. XIII 

Lo, mine eye hath seen all ! 1 

Mine ear hath heard and given it heed. 

What ye know, I know also, 2 

I not below you falling. 

But indeed I — to the Almighty I would speak, 3 
And I desire with God to reason. 

But ye indeed — forgers of lies ! 4 

Ye sham physicians all! 

Made deaf, oh would ye might be dumb! 5 

And it would be your wisdom. 

Pray hear my protestation, 6 

And hearken to the pleadings of my lips. 

For God will ye speak wickedly, 7 

And talk deceitfully for Him? 

His face will ye lift up ? 8 

Will ye contend for God? 



THE DISCUSSION 87 

CHAP. XIII 

Well that He search you out? 9 

As mocketh men, can ye mock Him ? 

Beproving He '11 reprove you, 10 

If faces ye in secrecy lift up. 

Will not His loftiness make you afraid, 11 

And His dread on you fall ? 

Your memory saws, similitudes of ashes ! 12 

Shield-bosses yours, bosses as clay ! 

Before me silence keep, and I will speak, 13 

Whatever, even, shall upon me come : 
Upon what, take I in my teeth my flesh, 14 

And put my life in my hand ? 

Behold, He '11 slay me! hope I not; 15 

Yet to His face my ways I will maintain. 

This, also, to me for salvation : 16 

That to His face the godless shall not come. 

Listening hear my speech, 17 

And in your ears my declaration. 

Lo now, I 've set the cause in order ! 18 

I know I shall be counted just. 

Who 7 s He, will plead against me ? 19 

For if I now keep silent, I shall die ! 



88 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XIII 

Two, only, do not unto me; 20 

Then from thy face I will not hide: 
Thy hand from on me far withdraw, 21 

And let thy terror not make me afraid; 

Then summon, and I '11 answer ; 22 

Or, I will speak ; — and answer me. 

Iniquities and sins, to me how many ? 23 

My sin and my transgression, make me know. 

Why hidest thou thy face, 24 

And hold'st me for thine enemy? 

A driven leaf wilt terrify ? 25 

And stubble dry pursue? 

For bitter things thou writ'st against me, 26 

And mak'st me keep my youth's iniquities ; 

Puttest my feet, too, in the stocks, 27 

And watchest all my paths ; 
Draw'st thee a mark around the roots of my 
feet! 

And he, as rot, wasteth away ! 28 

Like a moth-eaten garment! 

chap, xrv 
Man, born of woman ! 1 

Days few and full of trouble ! 



THE DISCUSSION 89 

CHAP. XIV 

Flower-like he cometh forth, and is cut down : 2 

He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. 

And dost thou open thine eyes on such a one, 3 

And into judgment with thee bringest me? 

Clean out of unclean, who can bring ? 4 

Not one ! 

Seeing his days determined, 5 

The number of his months with thee, 
His bounds thou hast appointed that he cannot 
pass; 

Look off from him, that he may rest, 6 

Till, as a hireling, he enjoy his day. 

For of a tree there ? s hope, if ? t be cut down, 7 

That it will sprout again, 

And that its sucker will not cease : 

Though root thereof wax old in earth, 8 

And stock thereof die in the ground, 
Through scent of water it will bud, 9 

And plant-like put forth boughs. 

But man doth die and waste away; 10 

Yea, man expireth, and where — he? 

The waters from the sea are gone, 11 

And flood doth dwindle and dry up ; 



90 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XIV 

And man down lieth and riseth not: 12 

Until no more the heavens, they shall not awake, 
Nor from their sleep be roused. 

Oh that in Sheol thou wouldst hide me ! 13 

Wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past ! 
A set time wouldst appoint me, and remember 
me! 

If man die, may he live again? 14 

All my war-service days I ? d wait, 

Till my discharge should come. 

Thou'dst call, and I should answer thee; 15 

Thou 'dst have a yearning toward thy handiwork. 

But now thou numberest my steps: 16 

Keep'st thou not watch upon my sin? 
Sealed my transgression in a sack ! 17 

And mine iniquity thou sewest up. 

I 

But, sooth, the mountain falling fadeth out, 18 

And from its place the rock 's removed : 
The waters wear the stones; 19 

Their overflowings wash earth's dust away; 
And man's hope thou destroyest, 
O'erpowerest him forever, and he passeth, 20 

Changest his countenance, and sendest him 
away. 



THE DISCUSSION 91 

CHAP. XIV 

His sons to honor come, and he knoweth not; 21 
And they're brought low, but he them heedeth 
not: 

Only, for self his flesh hath pain, 22 

And for itself his soul doth mourn. 

CHAP, xv 
Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said: 1 

Ought wise to answer windy knowledge, 2 

And fill his lungs with eastern blast? 
Eeason with talk unprofitable, 3 

And speeches ! — in them is no good ! 

Moreover thou dost cast off piety 4 

And before God diminishest devotion! 

For thy iniquity thy mouth doth teach, 5 

And thou dost choose the crafty's tongue. 

Thee thy own mouth condemneth, and not I: 6 

Yea, thy own lips against thee testify. 

Thou the first man was born? 7 

And ere the hills wast thou brought forth? 

God's council hast thou listened in? 8 

And wisdom dost thou to thyself reserve? 

What knowest thou, and we know not ? 9 

Dost understand, and not with us the same? 



92 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XV 

With us, both gray-haired and the very aged, 10 

In days above thy father, great. 

Too small for thee God's consolation? 11 

And the word gently with thee ? 

Why carrieth thee thy heart away ? 12 

And wherefore flash thine eyes ? 

That against God thou turnest thy spirit, 13 

And lettest words go from thy mouth ? 

Man! what? — that he be clean, 14 

And, woman-born ! that he be righteous ? 

Lo, in His saints He trusteth not, 15 

And in His eyes, not clean the heavens ! 
How less the loathsome and corrupt ! 16 

Man, drinking wickedness like water ! 

To thee I '11 breathe out: list to me; 17 

And that I 've seen I will declare; 

Which sages from their sires have told, 18 

And have not hid; 

To whom alone the land was given, 19 

And not a stranger passed among them. 

All of the wicked's days, in torture he ! 20 

And the years' number 's hid to the oppressor. 

A sound of terrors in his ears : 21 

Amid prosperity, upon him cometh spoiler! 



THE DISCUSSION 93 

CHAP. XV 

From darkness to return, he trusteth not; 22 

And of the sword awaited, he. 

Abroad for bread he wandereth — Where? 23 

He knoweth Darkness' day is ready at his hand. 

Distress and anguish frighten him; 24 

Like king for battle ready they overpower him ! 

For against God he stretcheth out his hand, 25 

And strengthened himself against the Al- 
mighty ! 
With neck he rusheth on Him! 26 

With the thick bosses of his bucklers ! 

For with his fatness covereth he his face, 27 

And maketh fat on loin ; 

And cities desolate inhabiteth — 28 

In houses — dwell not in them — 
Since, ready to be heaps. 

Eich he shall not be, nor his substance last; 29 

Nor shall their wealth spread in the earth. 

From darkness he shall not depart: 30 

Flame shall his branches wither, 

And by His mouth's blast shall he pass away. 

Let him not trust in vanity, himself deceiving; 31 
For vanity shall be his recompense : 



94 



THE BOOK OP JOB 



Fulfilled it shall be ere his time: 
"Nor shall his branch be green. 



CHAP. XV 

32 



Vine-like he shall shake off his unripe grapes, 33 
And olive-like cast off his bloom. 

For barren the ungodly's household, 34 

And fire the tents of bribery shall consume. 

Mischief conceive they, 35 

And vanity bring forth, 

And their bosom deceit prepareth. 



Then answered Job and said: 



CHAP. XVI 

1 



Many like these I ? ve heard : 2 

Distressful comforters ye all. 

An end to words of wind? 3 

Or what provoketh thee that thou dost answer ? 

I too could speak like you: 4 

If your soul were in my soul's stead, 
I could join words together against you, 
And shake my head at you. 

With my mouth I could strengthen you, 5 

And my lips solace should assuage. 

Although I speak, my pain is not assuaged, 6 

And if forbear I, what doth from me go? 

For worn out hath He made me now : 7 



THE DISCUSSION 95, 

CHAP. XVI 

Thou all my household hast made desolate ; 

And — witness is — thou *st shriveled me, 8 

And 'gainst me riseth up my leanness ; 

It testifieth to my face. 

His anger teareth ! aye, He hateth me ! 9 

He gnasheth on me with His teeth : 

My enemy ! His eyes upon me — sharpeneth ! 

They gape upon me with their mouth; 10 

In scorn they smite my cheek : 
Together they unite against me. 

To the ungodly God delivereth me, 11 

And casteth me into the wicked's hands. 

I was at ease, and He brake me asunder: 12 

And by my neck He clutched and dashed me to 

to pieces! 
And set me up for a mark for Him : 

His archers compass me about : 13 

My reins He cleaveth, and spareth not. 
Upon the ground He poureth out my gall : 

Breach upon face of breach, He breaketh me; 14 
He rusheth on me like a giant! 

Sackcloth I 've sewed upon my skin, 15 

And in the dust have laid my brow. 



96 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XVI 

My face is flushed with weeping, 16 

And on my lids the Shade of Death, 

Though in my hands no violence, 17 

And pure my prayer. 

Earth, cover thou not my blood! . 18 

And to my outcry be no place. 

Even now, behold, in heaven my witness ! 19 

Yea, voucher mine on high ! 

My friends my scorners: 20 

Mine eye outpoureth unto God; 

And might one plead for man with God ! 21 

As man's son for his neighbor. 

For years of number are come, 22 

And I the way go I shall not return. 

CHAP. XVII 

My spirit's spent; 1 

Extinguished are my days; 
The Graves for me! 

Verily mockeries with me; 2 

And mine eye dwelleth in their provocation. 

Put now: for me with thee be surety. 3 

Who 's he into my hand will strike ? 






THE DISCUSSION ' 97 

CHAP, xvn 

For their heart thou hast hid from understand- 4 

ing. 
Exalt, therefore, thou wilt not. 

For spoil betrayeth friends! 5 

Even his children's eyes shall waste away. 

And for the peoples' byword He hath set me! 6 

And spittle to their face I am become. 

And dim from grief impatient, is mine eye, 7 

And as a shadow all my limbs. 

Astonished shall the upright be at this, 8 

And roused the innocent against the godless : 

The righteous too shall hold his way, 9 

And clean of hands add strength. 

Howbeit, ye all, return ye ; come, I pray : 10 

For wise among you, find I not. 

My days are past; my purposes are broken off, 11 
Possessions of my heart! 

They put the night for day; 12 

Light near the face of darkness. 

Lo, wait I for the grave, my house; 13 

Spread I my couch in darkness; 

Say I unto Corruption, Thou, my Father ! 14 



98 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XVII 

To Worm, My Mother, and My Sister ! 

Where then my hope? 15 

And my hope — who shall see it ? 

Down to the bars of Sheol it shall go, 16 

When — in the dust together — rest! 

CHAP. XVIII 

Bildad the Shuhite answered then and said: 1 

How long hunt ye for words? 2 

Have sense and we '11 speak afterwards. 

Why are we counted as the beast ? 3 

Are in your eyes become unclean? 

Tearing his soul in his anger ! 4 

Shall earth for thy sake be forsaken? 
Or from its place the rock be moved? 

Again : the wicked's light 's put out, 5 

Nor doth his fire's flame shine: 

Light darkeneth in his tent, 6 

And over him his lamp 's extinguished. 

Straitened the steps of his strength shall be, 7 

And his own counsel cast him down. 

For into a net, by his own feet he 's thrown, 8 

And upon toils he walketh: 



THE DISCUSSION 99 

CHAP. XVIII 

Seizeth him by the heel a gin; 9 

Fast hold upon him layeth a snare, 
Its noose hid in the ground, 10 

And on the path its trap ! 

Terrors on every side affright him, 11 

And chase him at his heels. 

His strength is hunger-bitten, 12 

And Euin 's ready for his halting. 

Bars of his skin it shall devour ; 13 

Death's First-born shall devour his limbs. 

Out of his tent's security he 's torn ; 14 

And it shall march him to the King of Terrors ! 

Nothing to him shall in his tent abide : 15 

Upon his habitation 's scattered brimstone ! 

His roots dry up beneath, 16 

And cut off is his branch above. 

Eemembrance of him perisheth from earth, 17 

And on the street's face — not a name of him ! 

From light to darkness shall they thrust him, 18 

And chase him from the world. 

To him nor son nor son's son midst his people, 19 
Nor a survivor in his dwellings. 



100 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XVIII 

Astonished at his day are they that follow, 20 

As they that went before laid hold on horror. 

Such, verily, the habitations of the wicked, 21 

And this the place not knowing God. 

CHAP. XIX 

Then answered Job and said: ]_ 

How long will ye make sad my soul, 2 

And break me in pieces with words 
These ten times ye 've reproached me ; 3 

Ye 're not ashamed ye stun me ! 

And be it indeed 1 've erred, 4 

My error with myself remaineth. 

If over me ye will indeed make great, 5 

And plead against me my reproach, 
Know now, God hath subverted me, 6 

And with His net hath compassed me. 

Behold, I cry out, Violence! 7 

But am not heard : 

I cry aloud; 

But Justice ? — no ! 

My way He hath walled up, that pass I cannot, 8 
And darkness in my paths hath set. 

My glory He hath stripped me of, 9 

And taken from my head the crown. 



THE DISCUSSION 101 

CHAP. XIX 

On every side He breaketh me, and I am gone ! 10 
And, like a tree, He teareth up my hope ; 

Maketh His anger also burn against me; 11 

And as His foes He counteth me to Him. 

On come His troops together, 12 

And up against me cast their way, 
And round my tent encamp. 

Par from me Hath He put my brethren, 13 

And, all-estranged from me, those knowing me. 
My kinsfolk have forsaken, 14 

And my familiar friends forgotten me. 

My house sojourners and my maids count me a 15 

stranger ; 
I am an alien in their sight: 

I call my servant, and he answereth not; 16 

I beg him with my mouth ! 

Strange to my wife my breath, 17 

And loathsome I to children of my mold. 

Young children, even, despise me: 18 

Eise I, they talk at me! 

Men of my council all abhor me ; 19 

Even those I loved — they turn against me. 

Unto my skin and flesh cleaveth my bone, 20 

And I 'm escaped with skin of my teeth ! 



102 THE BOOK OP JOB 



CHAP. XIX 



Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, 21 

For the hand of God hath touched me ! 

Why persecute ye me like God, 22 

And are not sated with my flesh ? 

Oh that my words were written now ! 23 

Oh that they were recorded in the book! 
That with an iron pen and lead 24 

They were forever graven in the rock ! 

But I, know I my vindicator liveth, 25 

And, later, on the dust shall stand; 

And, after skin of me they've shattered, 26 

this: 
That, from my flesh, shall i see God ! 

Whom I, I shall behold, for me, 27 

And mine eyes see, and not a stranger ! — 

My reins are spent — within my bosom — 

Say ye, How we will persecute him ! — 28 

And yet the root of the matter 's found in me ; 
Have fear for you — from edge of sword ! 29 

For wrath — the punishments of the sword! 
That ye may know — a judgment ! 

CHAP. XX 

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said : 1 

My thoughts make me reply, for this, 2 

And for my haste within me : 



THE DISCUSSION 103 

CHAP. XX 

The shame of my reproof I have been hearing, 3 
And breath from my sound sense shall answer 
for me. 

Knowest thou this from everlasting, 4 

Since man was placed on earth, 

That short 's the wicked's triumphing, 5 

Yea, for a wink the ungodly's joy ? 

Although his loftiness mount to the heavens, 6 

And his head reach the cloud, 

Like his own dirt he doth forever perish : 7 

They, who have seen him, say, He ! — where ? 

Dream-like away he flieth, and they find him 8 

not: 
Yea, as a vision of the night he ? s chased away. 
Eye seeth him, but it shall not again; 9 

Nor shall his place behold him any more. 

His children shall seek favor of the poor, 10 

And back his hands shall give his wealth. 

His bones are full of his youth, 11 

But it shall lie down with him in the dust. 

Though mischief in his mouth be sweet, 12 

IJnder his tongue he hide it, 

Spare it, and not let it go, 13 

But keep it still amidst his palate; 

His food is in his bowels turned, 14 

The gall of asps within him! 



104 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XX 

Riches he swalloweth down, 15 

Andi he shall vomit them again ; 

Out of his stomach God will cast them. 

Asp's poison he shall suck : 16 

The viper's tongue shall slay him. 

He shall not look long on the rivers, 17 

Rivers of honey and curdled milk. 

Causing the fruit of labor to return, 18 

Nor shall he swallow down : 

According to the wealth of his exchange, 
Rejoice he shall not. 

For he the poor hath crushed, forsaken; 19 

With violence seized a house — and builded not. 

Since in his maw he knew no moderation, 20 

Nought shall he save of his delights. 

Nothing was left in his devouring ; 21 

Therefore his welfare shall not last. 

In the fulness of his sufficiency, 22 

To him shall be the pinch of poverty. 
Every hand of Misery shall come upon him. 

Be it at filling of his belly , 17 

Shall cast the hotness of His wrath upon him, 
And rain upon him as his food! 



THE DISCUSSION" 105 

CHAP. XX 

From iron weapon he shall flee, 24 

The bow of brass shall strike him through : 
He draweth, and from the midst it cometh ; 25 

Yea, lightning from his gall! 

Terrors upon him ! 

All darkness laid rip for his treasures. 26 

A fire not blown shall him consume : 
The remnant in his tent it shall devour. 

The heavens shall his iniquity reveal, 27 

And earth rise up against him; 

His house's increase shall depart, 28 

Wealth washed away in the day of His wrath. 

From God, the portion this, of a wicked man, 29 
And heritage appointed him from the Almighty. 

CHAP. XXI 

Then answered Job and said: 1 

Listening hear my words, 2 

And be your consolations this : — 

Bear with me ; I will also speak ; 3 

And after I have spoke, mock on ! — 

Me ! — my complaint of man ? — 4 

And why should not my breath be short? 



106 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXI 

Turn toward me and be astonished, 5 

And hand lay upon mouth. 

For even when I call to mind, I am appalled, 6 

And Horror seizeth on my flesh ! 

Why do the wicked live, 7 

Grow old, yea, mighty wax in wealth ? 

Their seed established with them to their face, 8 
And to their eyes their offspring. 
Their houses safe from fear, 9 

Nor rod of God upon them. 

Gendereth their bull and faileth not; 10 

Calveth their cow and casteth not. 

Their little ones they send forth like a flock, 11 

Their children dance. 

They lift to timbrel and harp, 12 

Eejoice at sound of pipe. 

They spend their days in weal, 13 

And down to Sheol in a twinkling go. 

Yet unto God they say, Depart from us, 14 

For we desire not knowledge of thy ways : 

The Almighty! — what? that we should serve 15 

Him! 
And what gain we if we Him importune ? 



THE DISCUSSION 107 

CHAP. XXI 

Lo, not in their hand their prosperity ! 16 

Far from me is the counsel of the wicked. 

How often is the wicked's lamp put out, 17 

And cometh on them their calamity? 

Doth — in His ire distribute pangs? 

Are they as stubble in the face of wind, 18 

And chaff the storm stealeth away ? 

God for his children layeth up his wickedness. 19 

Let Him requite to him that he may know: 

Let his eyes his destruction see, 20 

And let him drink of the Almighty 5 s wrath ! 

For in his mansion after him, what interest he, 21 
When his months' number 's cut off in the midst ? 

Teach knowledge unto God? 22 

Seeing He judgeth those exalted ? 

One dieth in the strength of his completeness, 23 

Wholly at ease and quiet; 

His udders full of milk, 24 

And moist the marrow of his bones : 

In bitter breath another dieth, 25 

And hath not tasted good. 

Alike they lie down in the dust, 26 

And the worm covereth them! 



108 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXI 

Behold, I know your thoughts, 27 

And the devices ye oppressively inflict on me. 

For ye say, Where the prince's house? 28 

And, Where the tent, the wicked's dwellings? 

Have ye not asked the passers by the way? 29 

And do ye not their tokens know? 
That in Destruction's day the wicked's spared? 30 
That in the day of wraths they 're guided forth? 

Who to his face wil-1 tell his way? 31 

And who '11 requite him for his doings ? 

Moreover to the Graves he 's borne, 32 

And keepeth watch upon the tomb. 

Clods of the valley are sweet to him; 33 

And after him will all men draw, 

As numberless before him. 

How comfort ye me then with breath, 34 

Since in your answers treachery remaineth? 

CHAP. XXII 

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said: \ 

Can man to God be gainful? 2 

As wisely acting 's gainful to one's self. 

A pleasure to the Almighty that thou art right- 3 

eous? 
Or gain, that thou thy ways mak'st perfect? 



THE DISCUSSION 109 

CHAP. XXII 

Doth He reprove thee for thy fear? 4 

Enter to judgment with thee? 

Not great thy wickedness? 5 

And endless thine iniquities? 

For thou a pledge for nought hast taken from 6 

thy brother, 
And stripped the naked of their clothing. 

Water to drink thou hast not given the weary, 7 

And bread thou hast withholden from the hun- 
gry- 

But the Man-of-Arm ! — to him the land ! 8 

And the Lif ted-up-of-Face sat down in it ! 

Away thou sentest widows empty-handed, 9 

And broken have been the orphan's arms. 

Snares therefore round about thee, 10 

And sudden fear dismayeth thee; 
Or darkness — see thou canst not — 11 

And multitude of waters cover thee! 

Not God the height of heaven ? 12 

And lo, head of the stars, how high! 

And sayest thou, How doth God know? 13 

Through dark clouds can He judge? 
Thick clouds a veil to Him, and He seeth not ; 14 
And on the vault of heaven He walketh ? 



110 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXII 

Wilt keep the way of time long past, 15 

Which men unrighteous trod? 

Who — and time not — were snatched awav : 16 

A flood was poured out, their foundation ! . 

Who said to God, Depart from us; 17 

And, What can the Almighty do to them? 

Yet He their houses filled with good: 18 

But far from me 's the counsel of the wicked ! 

The righteous look on and are glad, 19 

And the innocent laugh them to scorn — 
Surely our adversaries are cut off, 20 

And fire their remnant hath consumed. 

Acquaint thee now with Him, and be at peace : 21 
Thereby shall welfare come to thee. 
Receive the law, I pray thee, from His mouth, 22 
And lay His words up in thy heart. 

If thou return to the Almighty, 23 

Upbuilded shalt thou be: 

Far from thy tents put wickedness away, 

And ore lay in the dust, 24 

And Ophir mid the stones of streams; 

And the Omnipotent shall be thy gold, 25 

And precious silver unto thee. 

For then thou shalt delight in the Almighty, 26 

And lift thy face to God; 






THE DISCUSSION 111 

CHAP. XXII 

Shalt pray to Him, 27 

And He will hear thee, 

And thou shalt pay thy vows : 

Thou also wilt decree a thing, 28 

And it shall be established unto thee, 

And light shall shine upon thy ways. 

When they 're cast down, 29 

Uplifting! thou shalt say; 

And He will save the lowly-eyed: 

The sin-stained He will rescue ; 30 

Yea, he shall be delivered by the pureness of thy 
hands. 

CHAP. XXIII 

Then answered Job and said: 1 

To-day too, bitter my complaint: 2 

The hand upon me 's heavier than my groaning ! 

Oh that I knew where I might find Him! 3 

Unto His seat might come ! 

I 'd set the cause in order to His face, 4 

And fill my mouth with arguments: 
I 'd know the words He 'd answer me, 5 

And understand what He would say to me. 

With power immense would He contend with 6 
me? 



112 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXIII 

Nay ; He ? d Himself give heed to me ! 

There might the righteous reason with Him, 7 

And I were freed forever from my Judge ! 

Forward I go ; but lo, not He ! 8 

And back; but I do not perceive Him; 
The left side, in His working ; but behold I not ; 9 
Upon the right He hideth, and I cannot see ! 

But He the way with me doth know : 10 

Trieth He me, I shall come forth as gold ! 

My foot hath held fast to His step ; 11 

His way I 've kept, nor turned aside. 
Nor from His lips' command have I departed: 12 
His mouth's words have I treasured in my 
bosom. 

But He — in one! 13 

And who can turn Him? 
And His soul willeth, 
And He performeth. 

For my appointment He accomplished, 14 

And many such with Him. 

Therefore am I dismayed before His face : 15 

I mark, and I 'm afraid of Him. 
For God my heart is making faint ! 16 

And the Almighty terrifieth me ! 



THE DISCUSSION 113 

CHAP. XXIII 

For not at darkness' face am I dismayed, 17 

Nor that thick darkness covereth my face. 

CHAP. XXIV 

Why are not times laid up by the Almighty ? 1 

And knowing Him see not His days ? — 

Eemove the landmarks! 2 

With violence take flocks away, and feed! 
Ass of the orphan drive away: 3 

Ox of the widow take for pledge ! 

They push the needy from the way. — 4 

Earth's poor together hide themselves. 

Lo, asses in the desert, wild ! 5 

Forth to their work they go, 

Eagerly seeking prey ; 

To them the wilderness food for the young. 

They reap the fodder in the field, 6 

And glean the vintage of the unjust. 

Naked, all night they lie unclothed, 7 

And m the cold no covering. 

With mountain showers they *re wet, 8 

And shelterless they hug the rock! — 

Tear orphan from the breast! 9 

And on the poor they take in pledge. — 



114 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXIV 

Garmentless go about unclad, 10 

And hungry carry sheaves ! 

Their walls within they press out oil; 11 

Winepresses tread, a,nd suffer thirst ! 

From out the city of men they groan, 12 

And the soul of the pierced-through crieth out: 
Yet God doth not attribute folly ! — 

These are of those rebelling against light; 13 

Its ways they know not, 
Nor in its paths abide : 

Toward light the murderer riseth, 14 

Killeth the poor and needy, 
And in the night is as a thief. 

The adulterer's eye, too, waiteth for the gloam- 15 

ing, 
Saying, No eye shall see me; 
And putteth on his face a mask. 

They dig through houses in the dark ; 16 

Seal up themselves by day; 
They know not light. 

For morning to them all, 17 

The shade of Death, 

If recognize ! — the terrors of the shadow of 
Death ! 



THE DISCUSSION 115 

CHAP. XXIV 

Swift he upon the waters' face : 18 

Curst is their portion in the earth; 
He turneth not to the way of vineyards. 

Snow-waters drought and heat take quick away; 19 
Sheol, — have sinned ! — 

The womb f orgetteth him ; 20 

The worm doth sweetly feed upon him. 

No more is he remembered; 

And as a tree unrighteousness is broken. 

Ill treateth he the barren bearing not, 21 

And to the widow doth no good. — 

Yet by His power continueth the powerful: 22 
Though life they trust not, they arise ! — 

Giveth to them security, 23 

And they rely; 

And on their ways His eyes. — 

They 're high ; — a little, and they 're not ! 24 

Yea, they 're brought low ; 

Like all, they 're gathered in, 

And cut off as the tops of ears of corn. — 

And if not, now who '11 prove me liar, 25 

And make my comment nothing worth? 



116 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXV 

Bildad the Shuhite answered then, and said: ^ 

Sovereign sway and awe with Him ! 2 

He maketh peace in His high regions. 

To His battalions is there number? 3 

And upon whom doth not His light arise ? 

How then can man be just with God ? — 4 

And, born of woman, how be clean? 

Behold — even to the moon ! and it shineth not ! 5 
And in His eyes not pure the stars ! 

How much less man, corruption's worm ! 6 

And son of man, a crawling worm ! 

CHAP. XXVI 

Then answered Job and said: 1 

How hast thou helped the powerless! 2 

Hast saved the strengthless arm ! 
How counseled the unwise, 3 

And plentifully taught sound knowledge! 

To whom hast thou declaimed? 4 

And whose breath from thee came? 

Tremble the giant Shades 5 

Beneath the waters and their inhabitants ! 

Naked before Him, Sheol! 6 

And to Abaddon there 's no covering ! 



THE DISCUSSION 117 

CHAP. XXVI 

He stretcheth out the North o'er empty space ; 7 

Hangeth the Earth on nothing ! 

In His thick clouds He bindeth up the waters, 8 
And under them the cloud 's not rent. 

Face of the throne inclosing, 9 

He spreadeth out His cloud upon it: 

A circle bound He draweth on the waters' face 10 
Unto the limit of light with darkness. 

The pillars of heaven are shaken, 11 

And are astonished at His rebuke ! 

Yon sea He maketh tremble by His power, 12 

And by His wisdom smiteth Kahab through. 

By breath of Him the heavens — brightness ! 13 
His hand hath pierced the Serpent swift ! 

• 

Lo, these the outskirts of His ways ; 14 

And what a whisper of a word hear we of Him ! 
And who can comprehend the thunder of His 
power ? 

CHAP. XXVII 

Moreover Job continued his discourse, and said: \ 

— Liveth God! — 2 

Hath taken away my right ! — 

And the Almighty — 

Hath bitter made my soul ! — 



118 



THE BOOK OF JOB 



CHAP. XXVII 



For yet my life within me whole, 

And breath of God within my nostrils — 

My lips do not speak wickedness, 
Nor my tongue muttereth fraud. 

Far be it from me that I declare yon just: 
Till I expire, I '11 not put from me my integrity. 
Unto my rectitude I cling, and I will not let go : 
Of days of mine my heart reproacheth none. 



5 

6 



Mine enemy be as the wicked! 7 

And as the unrighteous he that riseth 'gainst me. 

For, though he get him gain, what the ungodly's 8 

hope, 
When God doth draw away his breath? 

Will God his outcry hear 9 

When trouble cometh on him? • 



Will he delight in the Almighty ? 10 

At all times call on God? 

Concerning God's hand I will teach you : 11 

What 's with the Almighty I will not conceal. 
Lo you, ye all, have seen! 12 

And why do you breathe out this — "breath ? 

With God the portion, this, of a wicked man, 13 

And heritage oppressors get from the Almighty : 



THE HIGHEST WISDOM 119 

CHAP. XXVII 

If his sons multiply, — for sword ! 14 

Nor with bread sated, shall his offspring be. 

Buried in death are his survivors ; IS 

Nor shall his widows wail. 

Though he heap silver up as dust, 16 

And clothes as clay prepare, 

Prepare he may, but put on shall the just, 17 

And the innocent divide the silver. 

His house he buildeth as the moth, 18 

And as a booth a keeper maketh: 

He lieth down rich, but is not gathered; 19 

He openeth his eyes, and — he is — not! 

Terrors like water overtake him: 20 

By night a tempest stealeth him away : 
The East Wind snatcheth him : — he ^s gone ! 21 

Aye, from his place it sweepeth him in storm ! 

For at him — hurleth, and not spareth! 22 

Out of His hand he fain would flee. — 

Shall clap their hands at him, 23 

And hiss him from his place! 

CHAP. XXVIII 

For, verily, a vein for silver, 1 

And place for gold they fine. 



120 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXVIII 

Iron is taken out of dust, 2 

And stone outpoureth brass. — 

Setteth an end to darkness, 3 

And searcheth out to farthest bound 
The stones of darkness thick and Shade of 
Death. 

From with sojourners breaketh-through a shaft: 4 

Forgotten of the foot, 

Afar from men they hang, they swing! 

The earth — out of it cometh bread, 5 

But underneath 't is turned up as by fire. 
Its stones the place of sapphires, 6 

And in it dust of gold. 

That path — no bird of prey hath known it, 7 

Nor falcon's eye descried it: 

No sons of pride have trodden it, 8 

Nor roaring lion passed thereby. 

Upon the flint he putteth forth his hand; 9 

He overturneth mountains by the roots; 

He cutteth passages among the rocks, 10 

And his eye seeth every precious thing: 

He bindeth streams from weeping, 11 

And hidden bringeth forth to light. 

But wisdom ! Whence shall it be found? 12 
And where the place of understanding? 



THE HIGHEST WISDOM 121 

CHAP. XXVIII 

Man knoweth not the price thereof, 13 

Nor in the Land of the Living is it found. 
Deep saith, Not it in me ! 14 

And Sea saith, Not with me ! 

Gotten for gold it cannot be, 15 

Nor price thereof be silver weighed. 

Lifted with Ophir's ore it cannot be, 16 

With precious onyx or the sapphire. 

Gold and glass — not with it compare, 17 

Nor jewels of the purest its exchange. 

Coral and crystal shall not mentioned be: 18 

Yea, above rubies, wisdom's worth. 

Not Ethiopia's topaz can with it compare; 19 

Nor shall it lifted be with the hid-away. 

The wisdom then, whence doth it come ? 20 

And where the place of understanding? 
Since hid from eyes of all the living, 21 

And from the winged of the heavens kept close. 

Destruction and Death say, 22 

We ? ve heard a rumor thereof with our ears ! 

God doth its way discern, 23 

And He its place doth know. 

For He ! He to earth's ends doth look : 24 

Under these heavens all, He seeth : 
To make weight for the wind ; 25 

And He the waters weigheth out by measure. 



122 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXVIII 

Upon His making rule for rain, 26 

And path for thunder's flash, 

Then saw He and recounted it: 27 

He firmly fixed it ; yea, and searched it out ! 

And unto man He said, 28 

Fear of the Lord ! Lo, Wisdom ! — That ! 
And to depart from evil, understanding ! 

chap, xxix 
And Job again took up his discourse, and said: 1 

Oh were I as months past ! 2 

As days God o'er me watched; 

When shone His lamp above my head, 3 

I walked the darkness by His light ! 

As I was in my autumn days, 4 

With God's familiar favor on my tent ; 
While with me yet, the Almighty ! 5 

My children round about me; 

When washed my steps in curdled milk, 6 

And the rock outpoured me streams of oil ! 

Upon my going out — the gate beside the city — 7 
In the broad space I set my seat ; 
The young men saw me and they hid themselves, 8 
And old men rising, stood ; 

Princes refrained from talking, 9 

And hand laid on their mouth: 



ON THE HEIGHTS 123 

CHAP. XXIX 

The nobles' voice was hushed, 10 

And to their palate cleaved their tongue. 

For the ear heard, and called me blest, 11 

And the eye saw, and witness gave me : 

For I delivered the poor imploring help, 12 

The orphan, and to him no helped: 

Upon me came the blessing of the perishing: 13 

Heart of the widow, too, I caused to sing for joy. 

I put on righteousness ; it clothed itself with me ; 14 
My rectitude as robe and diadem! 

Eyes was I to the blind, 15 

And feet I to the lame; 

A father I unto the needy; 16 

And, knew I not the cause, I searched it out. — 

But the wrong-doer's jaws — I smashed! 17 

And out of his teeth I plucked the prey ! 

Then said I, With my nest I shall expire, 18 

And, phcenix-like, days multiply; 

My root spread out to the waters; 19 

And all night lieth dew upon my branch; 

My glory fresh with me, 20 

And in my hand my bow renewed. — 



124 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXIX 

To me they listened and they waited, 21 

And for my counsel silence kept : 

They after my words spake no more; 22 

And on them my discourse distilled : 

And as for rain they waited for me, 23 

And opened wide their mouth — for latter rain ! 

Believed they not, I smiled upon them ; 24 

And my f ace' light they cast not down. 

Their way I chose out, and sat chief, 25 

And dwelt as king amid the army, 
As one who comforteth the mourning. 

CHAP. XXX 

But now the less-in-days than I deride me, 1 

Whose sires I scorned to put with my flock's 

dogs! 
What to me even their hands' strength? 2 

In whom completion's perished; — 

With want and hunger lean, 3 

Those gnawing the dry ground ! 

In gloom of waste and desolation ! 

Pluckings of salt-wort by the bushes, 4 

And roots of broom, their meat! 

Forth from the midst they 're driven — 5 

Against them as the thief, they cry — 
To dwell in horror of the valleys, 6 

Holes of the earth and rocks! 



IN THE DEPTHS 125 

CHAP. XXX 

They bray among the bushes : 7 

Under the nettles they are huddled: 

Children of fools, yea, children of no-name; 8 

Out of this country they were beaten. 

And now I am become their song ; 9 

Yea, I 'm a byword unto them ! 
They loathe me, stand aloof from me, 10 

And spare not spittle from my face. 

For He hath loosed His rein and humbled me ; 11 
And they have cast the bridle off before me. 

Upon the right the beast-brood rise ; 12 

They thrust my feet aside, 
And their destructive ways cast up against me, 
Tear up my path, help forward my calamity — 13 
To them no helper — 

As a wide breach ! — they come ! 14 

Under the crash they roll along: 

Terrors are turned upon me. 15 

They chase mine honor as the wind, 

And as a cloud my welfare 's passed away. 

And on me now my soul 's poured out : 16 

Affliction's days have taken hold upon me. 

By night my bones are pierced from on me, 17 

And gnawers of me take no rest. 



126 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXX 

By the great force my garment's changed; 18 

It bindeth me about as collar of my coat. 

Into the mire He casteth me, 19 

And I 'm become like dust and ashes. 

I cry to thee, and thou me answerest not; 20 

I stand up, and thou loolcest at me ! 

Thou 'rt turned to cruel toward me : 21 

With thy hand's strength thou persecutest me. 

Thou liftest me to the wind, thou mak'st me 22 

ride; 
And thou dissolvest me in storm! 

For I know thou wilt bring me — death ! 23 

And to the house of meeting for all living. — 

Merely — not praying ! — will stretch out the 24 

hand! 
Though, none the less, in his calamity he cry for 

help. 

Have I not wept for hard-of-day? 25 

My soul been sad for the needy? 

When good J looked for, evil came; 26 

And light I waited for, but came thick darkness. 

My bowels boil, and rest not: 27 

Affliction's days are come upon me. 



OATHS AND IMPBECATIONS 127 

CHAP. XXX 

Darkened without the sun I went : 28 

I stood up in the assembly; help I cried for. 

To jackals I 'm a brother, 29 

And to the ostrich-brood companion! 

My skin — from on me — black ; 30 

And burn with heat my bones. 

And unto mourning is my harp, 31 

My pipe to voice of weeping. 

CHAP. XXXI 

I cut a covenant for mine eyes! 1 

How then could I gaze on a maiden? 

For what from God the portion from above? 2 

And the Almighty's heritage from on high? 
Not great misfortune to the unrighteous, 3 

And a strange fate to workers of iniquity ? 

Doth He not see my ways, 4 

And number all my steps ? 

If I have walked with insincerity, 5 

And my foot hasted to deceit — 

In even balance He shall weigh me, 6 

And God shall know my innocence — 

If from the way my step hath turned aside, 7 

And walked my heart after my eyes, 
And to my hands a spot hath cleaved — 



* 



128 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXI 

Let me sow, and another eat, 8 

And be my produce rooted out ! 

If to a woman hath my heart been lured, 9 

And at my neighbor's door I 've lain in wait, 

Let my wipe to another grind, 10 

And others bow upon her ! 

For that — a heinous crime ! 11 

Yea, it — iniquity ! — the MAGISTEATES! 
For, it — a fire ! — consumeth to ABADDON ! 12 
And all mine increase would root out. 

If I despised the right of my man-servant, 13 

Or my handmaid in their contention with me, 
Then what shall I do, when God riseth up ? 14 

And when He visiteth, what shall I answer 
Him? 

In mother-mold made me, made He not him? 15 
Aye, One did form us in the mold ! 

If from the wish I have withheld the poor, 16 

Or caused the widow's eyes to fail; 
Or have my morsel eaten all alone, 17 

And orphan hath not fed thereof — 

Nay, from my youth he grew with me for father, 18 
And, from my mother's breast, I've guided 
her — 



OATHS AND IMPRECATIONS 129 

CHAP. XXXI 

If I Ve seen perishing for want of clothings 19 

And covering was not to the needy — 
If his loins have not blessed me — 20 

Aye, he was warmed with my lambs' fleece — 

If 'gainst the fatherless my hand I 've lifted, 21 

For in the gate I saw my help — 

Let fall my shoulder from its shoulder- 22 

BLADE, 

And let my arm be broken from its bone ! 

Because, from God — calamity! a terror to me; 23 
And, for His Loftiness, — I could not. 

If I 've made gold my hope, 24 

And to the hoarded said, My Confidence ! — 
If I rejoiced for great my wealth, 25 

And for my hand had gotten much — , 

If I beheld the Light when brilliant, 26 

And moon in splendor walking, 

And secretly my heart hath been enticed, 27 

And kissed my hand my month — 

This, too, iniquity! for MAGISTRATES! 28 

For I 'd been false to God above — 

If at my hater's rain I rejoiced, 29 

And lifted up myself when evil found him — 



130 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXXI 

Nay, I permitted not my mouth to sin 30 

By asking with a curse his life — 

If men of my tent did not say, 31 

Who '11 give forth, From his meat we ? ve not 
been satisfied ? — 

The stranger lodged not in the street; 32 

My doors I opened to the way — 

If, Adam-like, I covered my transgressions 33 

By hiding in my bosom my iniquity, 

Because I dreaded the great multitude, 34 

And the contempt of families abashed me; 

And I kept silence, went not out the door ! — 

Oh had I one to hear me ! — 35 

Behold my signature ! — Let the Almighty an- 
swer me ! — 
And scroll my adversary hath written. 

Surely, I 'd lift it on my shoulder; 36 

Bind it a crown to me ! 

The number of my steps I ? d tell Him: 37 

As prince would I go near Him! 

If my land crieth out against me, 38 

And, all as one, its furrows wail — 
If I its strength have eaten without money, 39 

And made its owners breathe the life out — 



ELIHITS SUMMING UP 131 

CKAP. XXXI 

Let thorns spring up instead of wheat, 40 

And noisome weeds instead of barley! 

The words of Job are ended. 

CHAP. XXXII 

So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he 1 
was righteous in his own eyes. 

Then was kindled the anger of Elihu, the son of Bar- 2 
achel the Buzite, of the family of Ram: against Job 
was his anger kindled, because he justified himself 
rather than God. 

Also against his three friends was his anger kindled ; Jj 
because they had not found an answer, and condemned 
Job. 

Now Elihu had waited for Job with words, because 4 
they were elder than he. 

And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the 5 
mouth of these three men, his anger was kindled. 

And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered 6 
and said: 

Small I, in days, 

And men grayheaded ye; 

Therefore did I hold back, 

And fear to breathe out my opinion with you. 

I said, Days ought to speak, 7 

And multitude of years teach wisdom. 

But yet, in man, a spirit! 8 

And the Almighty's breath doth give them un- 
derstand! ag. 



132 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXII 

Great are not wise ; 9 

Nor Justice do the aged understand. 

Therefore say I, Hearken to me; 10 

I also, I will my opinion show. 

Behold, I waited for your words; 11 

I gave ear to your reasonings, 

"Whilst ye were searching things to say: 

Yea, I attended unto you; , 12 

And lo, to Job, not one, confuting, 

Among you, answering his declarations! 

That ye may not say, We Ve discovered wisdom: 13 
Him, God, not man, shall put to flight ! 

Now against me he hath not marshaled words, 14 
Nor with your speeches will I answer Mm. — 

They are amazed; no more reply: 15 

Words have been taken from them ! 

And shall I wait, for they speak not? 16 

For they stand still, respond no more? 

I also, my part I will answer; 17 

I, even — my opinion I will show. 

For I am full of words ; 18 

My bosom's spirit doth constrain me : 
Behold, my breast, as wine unopened ! 19 

Will burst like bottles new. 



ELIHIPS SUMMING UP 133 

CHAP. XXXII 

I '11 speak; and 't will be breath to me : 20 

I '11 ope my lips and answer. 

Pray let me not accept the person of man; 21 

Nor flattery will I give to man. 
For how to flatter know I not: 22 

Away my Maker soon would take me. 

CHAP. XXXIII 

Howbeit, Job, I pray, hear my discourse, 1 

And hearken all my words. 

Lo, now Fve oped my mouth ! 2 

My tongue hath in my palate spoken : 
My words, the uprightness of my heart, 3 

And knowledge purified my lips shall speak. 

The Spirit of God hath made me, 4 

And breath of the Almighty given me life. 

Answer me, if thou canst: , 5 

Before me set in order : take thy stand ! 

Lo I, toward God, according to thy wish ! 6 

I also out of clay am moulded. 

Lo, dread of me shall not make thee afraid, 7 

Nor my hand's palm be heavy on thee. 

Thou, surely, in mine ears hast spoken — 8 

And I the words' voice heard — 



134 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXIII 

I 'm clean, without transgression ; 9 

I, innocent ; neither in me iniquity ! 

Lo, grounds of quarrel findeth He against me ! 10 
He counteth me His enemy: 

My feet He putteth in the stocks: 11 

He watcheth all my paths ! 

I answer thee: Lo, this! — thou art not just; 12 
For God is greater than man. 

Why dost thou strive against Him 13 

For, of His matters all, He giveth no account? 

For God doth speak in one way, 14 

Even in two ; — heedeth it not ! — 

In dream, a vision of the night, 15 

When deep sleep falleth upon men, 

In slumberings on the bed ; 

Then he uncovereth men's ears, 16 

And sealeth their instruction. 

That He withdraw the man — the deed — 17 

And cover pride from man; 

To keep his soul back from the pit, 18 

And life from perishing by missile shafts. 

He 's chastened, too, with pain upon his bed, 19 

And strife unceasing in his bones; 



ELIHTTS SUMMING UP 135 

CHAP. XXXIII 

And bread his life abhorreth, 20 

And dainty food his soul. 

Waste th his flesh from sight away, 21 

And — were unseen — project his bones; 
And draweth near the grave his soul, 22 

His life to the destroyers. 

If messenger there be for him, 23 

Interpreter, out of a thousand one, 

To show to man his uprightness; 

And he be gracious unto him and say, 24 

Deliver him from going down the pit ; 

A ransom I have found ; 

Fresher than childhood groweth his flesh again : 25 
Unto his youth's days he returneth: 

To God he prayeth, 26 

And He to him is favorable, 
And maketh see His face with shouts of joy: 
And He to man his righteousness restoreth. 



u t> j 



Before men singeth he, and saith, I Ve sinned, 27 
And right perverted; yet 'twas not requited 

me — 
Delivering my soul from entering the pit — 28 

And my life looketh on the light! 

Lo, all these worketh God, 29 

Twice, thrice, with man; 



136 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXXIII 

To bring his breath back from the grave 30 

To light in light of the living ! 

Mark well, Job, hearken to me ! 31 

Be still, and I will speak. 

If words there are, reply to me: 32 

Speak: for I wish to do thee justice. 

If not, list thou to me : 33 

Be silent ; and FU teach thee wisdom. 

CHAP, xxxrv 
Moreover answered Elihu and said: \ 

Hear, ye wise, my words; 2 

And knowing, give me ear : 

For the ear trieth words, 3 

As palate tasteth meat. 

Choose we for us the right; 4 

What good we know among ourselves. 

For Job hath said, Eighteous am I, 5 

And God hath taken away my right : 
Maugre my right, I am a liar ! 6 

Mortal my arrow ! — no transgression ! 

What man like Job ? 7 

Drinketh in blasphemy like water ! 
And goeth in company with workers of iniquity, 8 
Even in walk with men of sin ! 



ELIHTTS SUMMING UP 137 

CHAP. XXXIV 

For he hath said, 9 

It nothing profiteth a man 

In the delighting of himself with God! 

Hearken to me therefore, 10 

Ye men of heart : 

From guilt — to God ! — profane ! 
And wickedness ! — the Almighty ? 

For man's work He doth render him, 11 

And make each find according to behavior. 

Yea, surely, God will not do wickedly, 12 

Nor the Almighty justice wrest. 

Who gave Him charge over the earth? 13 

Or who arranged the world complete ? 

Were He to set His heart on Him, 14 

Gather unto Himself His spirit and His breath, 
All flesh together would expire, 15 

And man return to dust. 

If understanding now, hear this: 16 

Hearken to my words' voice: 

Shall even hating right bear rule? 17 

And wilt condemn The Just, The Mighty? 

Saith " Belial ! " to a king ! 18 

To nobles, " Godless ! " . 



138 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXXIV 

Who princes' face accepteth not, 19 

E"or rich regardeth more than poor ! 

For they His handiwork, they all : 

A wink! they die, even at midnight! 20 

The people are shaken and pass away, 

And without hand the mighty are removed. 

For on the ways of man His eyes, 21 

And all his steps He seeth: 

No darkness nor Death-shadow, 22 

Where workers of iniquity may hide ! 

For on a man He needeth not think twice — • 23 

With God to enter into judgment. 
Without inquiry, breaketh He the mighty, 24 

And setteth others in their stead. 

Therefore their works He knoweth; 25 

And in a night He overturneth, and they ? re 

crushed. 
He smiteth them as wicked 26 

In the beholders' place, — 

Because they turned from after Him, 27 

And disregarded all His ways, — 
To cause the outcry of the poor to come to him, 28 
And He might hear the wail of the afflicted. 

He too doth quiet give; 29 

Who then can tumult make ? 



ELIHITS SUMMING UP 139 

CHAP. XXXIV 

Face too He hideth; 

Who can behold him then ? — 

Whether unto a nation, 

Or to a man, alike — 

Away from the polluted^ reign; 30 

Away from the ensnarers of the people. 

For unto God — hath said 31 

I 've borne ; offend I not : 

Beyond my seeing, teach me thou: 32 

If I Ve done wickedness, I will no more ? 

Shall He requite it from with thee ? 33 

That thou refusest? 

For thou must choose, and not myself: 
Then, what thou knowest, speak ! 

Men of intelligence will say to me — 34 

Even the wise man listening me — 

Job speaketh without knowledge, 35 

And his words wanting wisdom. 

My wish ! Job might be tried unto the end, 36 

For answering like wicked men ! 

For he rebellion addeth to his sin: 37 

Among us clappeth he, 

And multiplieth his words 'gainst God! 



140 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXV 

Elihu answered furthermore, and said: 1 

This think'st thou right? 2 

Thou sayest, More my righteousness than God's I 

Tor thou say'st, What advantage will it be to 3 

thee? 
What gain I more than from my sin? 

I answer thee, 4 

And thy companions with thee. 

Look to the heavens and see; 5 

And view the skies — are higher than thou. 

If thou dost sin, 6 

What doest thou 'gainst Him ? 

And multiplied be thy transgressions, 

What doest thou to Him? 

If righteous thou, what giv'st thou Him ? 7 

Or what receiveth He from hand of thine? 

For a man like thee, thy wickedness ; 8 

And for a son of man thy righteousness. — 

From multitude of violent deeds they cry aloud ; 9 
They cry for help by reason of the Mighty's arm. 

But none saith, Where my Maker, God? 10 

Songs giving in the night; 

Us teaching more than beasts of earth, 11 

And wiser making us than fowls of heaven? 



ELIHTTS SUMMING UP 141 

CHAP. XXXV 

There cry they ; but He answer eth not ; 12 

Because, — the pride of evil men. 

Verily God will not hear vanity, 13 

Nor will the Omnipotent regard it. 

Much less, thou sayest thou behold'st Him not 1 14 
The cause before Him ! therefore wait for Him. 

But now, because His anger doth not visit, 15 

Nor strictly marketh He transgression, 
Therefore Job openeth his mouth with — 

breath I 
Words without sense he multiplieth ! 

CHAP, xxxvi 
Elihu also proceeded, and said: 1 

A little wait for me, and I will show thee ; 2 

Because — vet words for God ! 

My knowledge I will fetch from far, 4 

And to my Maker righteousness ascribe : 
For verily not false my speech : 4 

Perfect in knowledge with thee. 

Behold ! — God! — Mighty ! 5 

But none despiseth. 
Mighty in strength of heart, 

Life of the wicked He preserveth not, 6 

But giveth the afflicted right. 



142 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXVI 

Not from the saints withdraweth He His eyes, 7 

But on the throne with kings 
He setteth them for aye, 
And they 're exalted. 

And if in fetters bound, 8 

Caught in affliction's cords, 

Then showeth He them their doings and their 9 

sins, 
That insolently they ? ve behaved. 

He openeth, too, their ear to discipline, 10 

And from iniquity commandeth that they turn. 

If hearken they and serve, 11 

In prosperousness they spend their days, 
And pleasantly their years. 

But if they hearken not, 12 

By missile shaft they perish, 
And with no knowledge die. 

But anger the impure in heart lay up : 13 

They cry not when He bindeth them. 

Dieth their soul in youth, 14 

And mid the sodomites their life ! 

The poor by his affliction He delivereth, 15 

And by adversity He openeth their ear. 



ELIHIPS SUMMING UP 143 

CHAP. XXXVI 

Yea, He 'd have led thee too 16 

Out of the mouth of Straitness — 

A broad place, where — no narrowness — 

And food upon thy table full of fatness ! 

But thou art full of judgment of the wicked; 17 

Judgment and Justice take fast hold. 

For — heat of passion ! — lest it lead thee into 18 

mockery, 
And a great ransom cannot rescue thee. 

Will He esteem thy riches ? 19 

Not gold, nor all the might of wealth. 

For that night pant not, 20 

When peoples in their place go up ! 

Take heed; turn not unto iniquity: 21 

For this thou choosest rather than affliction. 

Lo, loftily God doeth in His power! 22 

Who doth instruct like Him? 

Who hath His way enjoined Him? 23 

Or who can say, Thou doest wrong? 

» 

Eemember that thou magnify His work, 24 

Whereof men sing. 

All men have gazed thereon: 25 

Afar off man beholdeth ! 



144 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXXVI 

Lo, great the Almighty! and we know not; 26 

Unsearchable the number of His years. 

For He the water-drops updraweth: 27 

Kain, for His vapor, pour they out; 

Which clouds drop down, 28 

In multitude on man distil ! 

Can comprehend also the rendings of the clouds ? 29 
The thunderings of His pavilion ? 

Behold, His light He spreadeth round Him, 30 

And covereth the bottom of the sea ! 

For by them judgeth He the nations : 31 

Food in abundance giveth. 

Both palms He covereth with the lightning, 32 

And giveth it a charge to strike the mark. 

The noise thereof telleth of Him — 33 

Even the herd — of coming up. 

CHAP. XXXVII 

My heart at this, too, trembleth, . 1 

And leapeth from its place ! 

Listening, hear the rumbling of His voice ! 2 

Yea, muttering goeth from His mouth! 



ELIHU'S SUMMING UP 145 

CHAP XXXVII 

Forth under all the heavens He sendeth it, 3 

And to the wings of Earth His lightning; 
After it roareth a voice! 4 

He thundereth with His voice sublime. 

Nor doth He stay them when His voice is heard. 
Marvelously God thundereth with His voice, 5 

Doing great deeds; 

And comprehend we cannot. 

For to the snow He saith, 

Fall thou ! — the earth ! 6 

So to the burst of rain, 

And downpours of His mighty rain. 

He sealeth up the hand of every man, 7 

That mortals all may know His work. 
Then into covert go the beasts, 8 

And in their dens abide. 

Out of the Chamber cometh cvclone, 9 

And, from the Scatterers, the cold: 
Ice by the breath of God is given, 10 

And narrowed is the waters' breadth. 

And He with moisture ladeth the thick cloud: 11 
Abroad His lightning's cloud He spreadeth; 

And to and fro 'tis by His guidance turned; 12 



146 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XXXVII 

That they may do whatever He commandeth 

them 
Upon the inhabited world's face; 

Whether for scourge, 13 

Or for His land, 
Or for a kindness, 
He causeth it to come. 

Hearken to this, Job ! 14 

Stand still, and mark the wondrous works of 
God. 

Know'st thou how God enjoineth on them, 15 

And maketh shine the lightning of His cloud? 

Know'st thou the poisings of the clouds, 16 

Wonders of the Complete-in-Knowledge ? 

Who, thy garments warm, 17 

When earth is still by reason of the South — 

Canst thou with Him spread out the sky 18 

Firm as a molten mirror? 

Teach us what we shall say to Him : 19 

We cannot set in order, for the darkness. 

Shall it be told Him that I M speak ? 20 

Or doth man speak that he be swallowed up ? 



VOICE FKOM THE WHIKLWIKD 147 

CHAP. XXXVII 

And now they gaze not on the Light, 21 

That, shining in the skies, 

When wind hath passed and cleansed them. 

Gold cometh from the north! 22 

Terrible majesty with GOD ! — 

ALMIGHTY !.— Find Him out we cannot: 23 

Magnificent in power! 

And judgment and full equity He violateth not. 

Men therefore fear Him: 24 

Not any wise of heart regardeth He — 

CHAP. XXXVIII 

Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, \ 
and said: 

Who? — this? — a-darkening counsel 2 

By words without intelligence ! 

Gird up thy loins now like a man, 3 

And I will ask of thee, and do thou make me 
know ! 

When I laid Earth's foundations, where wast 4 

thou? 
Declare, if thou hast understanding: 

Its measures who determined ? if thou knowest ! 5 
Or who upon it stretched the line? 



148 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXVIII 

Whereon were its foundations sunk? 6 

Or who did lay its corner stone? 

When sang the morning stars together, 7 

And shouted all the sons of God for joy ! 

Or shut the sea with doors, 8 

When it burst forth, issued new-born ? 

When I the mist its mantle made, , 9 

And the dark cloud its swaddling-band, 

And brake for it my boundary, 10 

And set up bars and doors; 

And said, Thus far shalt come; but farther, no! 11 
And here thy Boilers' pride be stayed ! 

Hast thou commanded, since thy days, the 12 

morning ? 
The Dayspring caused to know his place? 

That it might take hold of the wings of Earth, 13 
And out of it the wicked might be shaken ? 



l o j 



■ 

'Tis changed ! as seal-ring clay ! 14 

Aye — stand forth as in gay attire ! 

And from the wicked is their light withholden, 15 
And the uplifted arm is broken. 



VOICE FEOM THE WHIELWIND 149 

CHAP. XXXVIII 

Into the Sea's springs hast thou entered, 16 

And walked in the recesses of the Deep? 

Have Death's gates been laid bare to thee ? 17 

Or hast thou seen the doors of Death-shade? 

Hast comprehended Earth's broad spaces? 18 

If thou dost know it all, declare — 

That way where dwelleth Light; 19 

And Darkness, where, its place ; 

That thou shouldst take it to its bound, 20 

And mark its mansion's paths. 

Know'st thou because thou then wast born, 21 

And great the number of thy days? 

Entered hast thou the treasuries of snow? 22 

Or seen the treasuries of hail ? 

Which I reserve against the time of trouble, 23 

Against the day of battle and war. 

By what way is the light diffused? 24 

The east wind spread upon the earth? 

Who for the water-flood hath cleft a channel, 25 

And path for thunder's flash? 

To cause to rain on land unpeopled, 26 

The wilderness; wherein, no man; 



150 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXVIII 

To satisfy the desolate and waste, 27 

And make the tender grass spring forth. 

Hath rain a father? 28 

Or who the dew-drops hath begotten ? 

Out of what matrix came the ice? 29 

And heaven's hoar-frost, who hath given it 
birth? 

The waters hide themselves as stone, 30 

And the deep's face is frozen. 

Canst bind the bands of Pleiades, 31 

Or loose Orion's cords? 

Forth in their season canst thou bring the 32 

Zodiac Signs? 
Or guide the Great Bear with her sons? 

Heaven's ordinances dost thou know ? 33 

Canst thou establish their dominion in the 
earth ? 

Canst lift thy voice to the dark cloud, 34 

That plenteousness of waters cover thee? 
Send lightnings, and they go, 35 

And say to thee, Here we ? 

Who hath put wisdom in dark clouds, 36 

Or given sky-forms understanding ? 






YOICE FEOM THE WHIKLWIND 151 

CHAP. XXXVIII 

In wisdom who can count the clouds? 37 

Or make heaven's bottles prone, 
When the dust runneth to a mass, 38 

And fast together cleave the clods? 

Wilt thou hunt prey for the lioness? 39 

Or fill the appetite of lions young, 
When in the dens they couch, 40 

Abide in covert to lie in wait ? 

Who for the raven doth his food provide, 41 

When unto God his young ones cry, 
Wander for lack of meat? 

CHAP. XXXIX 

Know'st thou the time the wild rock-goats bring 1 

forth ? 
Dost thou observe the travail of the hinds ? 
Dost count the months they fill? 2 

Or know'st their bearing time ? 

They bow, they cause their young to part, 3 

They cast away their pangs. 

Their young are lusty, grow up in the field, 4 

Go forth, and come not back to them. 

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? 5 

Or who hath loosed the swift ass' bands? 
Whose house I Ve made the wilderness, 6 

And the salt land his dwelling place. 



152 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XXXIX 

He laugheth at the city's din; 7 

He heareth not the driver's shouts : 
The mountains' range his pasture, 8 

And after every green he searcheth. 

(Will the wild ox aspire to serve thee? 9 

Or at thy crib abide? 

Canst bind the wild ox in the furrow with his 10 

band? 
Or will he harrow valleys after thee? 

Trust him wilt thou, for great his strength? 11 

Or leave to him thy labor ? 

Confide in him to bring thy harvest home, 12 

And gather in thy threshing-floor? 

Joyously waveth the ostrich wing! 13 

Pinion and plume of love? 

'For on the ground her eggs she leaveth, 14 

And warmeth them in dust; 

And she forgetteth foot may crush them, 15 

Or wild beast trample them. 

Her young she treateth harshly, as not hers; 16 

Her labor vain, without solicitude; 
For wisdom God hath caused her to forget, 17 

Nor hath imparted to her understanding. 

What time she lasheth up herself on high, 18 

She laugheth at the horse and his rider ! 



VOICE FEOM THE WHIRLWIND 153 

CHAP. XXXIX 

Hast thou given the stallion strength? 19 

Hast thou his neck with thunder clothed? 

Canst make him like a locust leap? 20 

The glory of his nostrils — terror ! — 

They paw in the valley, and rejoice in 21 

strength — 
Forward he goeth to meet the battle array! 
He laugheth at fear and is not dismayed, 22 

Nor turneth he back from the face of the sword. 

Eattleth the quiver upon him, 23 

The flashing spear and javelin! 

He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and 24 

raging, 
Nor standeth he still at the trumpet's voice : 

Oft as the trumpet he saith, Aha! 25 

And from afar he smelleth the battle, 

The thunder of the captains and the shouting! 

Soareth the hawk by thy intelligence? 26 

Stretcheth toward the south her wings ? 

Mounteth the eagle at thy command, 27 

And maketh her nest on high? 

She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, 28 

On the rock's tooth and stronghold: 



154 



THE BOOK OF JOB 



Thence spieth out the prey; 
Far off her eyes behold: 

Her young, too, suck up blood; 
And, where the slain, there she! 



CHAP. XXXIX 

29 



30 



CHAP. XL 
1 

2 



Jehovah further answered Job, and said: 

Chider contend with the Almighty? 
Of God, a chider! Let him answer it! 

Then Job answered Jehovah and said: 

Lo, I am vile ! What word can I return to 

thee? 
I lay my hand upon my mouth. 
Once have I spoken, and Fll not reply; 
Yea, twice ; but Fll no more. 



Then Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, g 
and said: 



Gird up thy loins now like a man ! 

Thee I will ask; and do thou make me know. 

Wilt thou even annul my right? 
Condemn me that thou mayst be justified ? 



8 



An arm to thee like God? 9 

Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? 



VOICE FEOM THE WHIELWIND 155 

CHAP. XL 

Deck thyself now with grandeur and sublimity, 10 
And robe thyself with glory and with beauty : 

Pour forth the overflowings of thine anger, 11 

And look on every proud one, and abase him; 

Every proud one look on ; bring him low ! 12 

And tread the wicked down — beneath them! 

Hide them together in the dust; 13 

Bind up their faces in the Hidden ! 

Then I, too, will confess to thee 14 

That thy right hand can save thee. 

See now Behemoth, which I made with thee : 15 

Grass like an ox he eateth. 

Behold, now! In his loins his strength; 16 

And in the muscles of his midst, his might. 

His tail he moveth like a cedar : 17 

The sinews of his thighs are knit together. 
His bones brass tubes; 18 

His limbs like iron bars. 

He of God's ways the prime: 19 

Who made him giveth him a sword. 

Because the mountains yield him produce, 20 

And field beasts all play there. 



156 THE BOOK OP JOB 

CHAP. XL 

Under the lotuses he lieth 21 

In covert of the reed, and fen: 

The lotuses weave him his shade; 22 

The willows of the brook encompass him. 

Lo, violent be the stream, he startleth not ! 23 

Fearless is he, though to his mouth break forth 
a Jordan ! 

Shall seize him in his eyes ? 24 

Pierce through the nose with snares? 

CHAP. XLI 

With hook canst thou draw out Leviathan ? 1 

Or press his tongue down with a cord? 
Put a rush-rope into his nose, ? 

And pierce his jaw through for a ring? 

Will he make many supplications unto thee? 3 

Soft will he speak to thee? 

A covenant cut with thee? 4 

Wilt take him for a slave forever? 

Play with him as a bird? 5 

Or bind him for thy maidens? 

Shall companies make traffic of him? 6 

Part him among the merchants? 

Wilt fill his skin with barbed irons, 7 

And with fish spears his head? 



VOICE FBOM THE WHIKLWIND 157 

CHAP. XLI 

Lay thy hand on him! 8 

Think of the battle ! 
Thou 'It not do more ! 

Lo, hope of him's proved false! 9 

Not be cast down, even at sight of him ? 

None so audacious as to stir him up. 10 

Who, then, is he, before my face will stand ? 
Who hath preceded me, and I repay? 11 

It — under all these heavens — mine ! 

I keep not silence of his limbs, 12 

And fame of mighty deeds, and his proportion 
comely. 

Who can his garment's face uncover ? 13 

Who come within his double bridle ? 

His face doors, who can open? 14 

The circuits of his teeth — a Terror ! 

Strong shields, a pride ! 15 

Shut up — a close-pressed seal. 

They join, one on another, 16 

Nor air can come between them. 

Man to his brother they are glued! 17 

They cling together, and cannot be sundered. 

His neesings flash forth light, 18 

And like the eyelids of the Morn, his eyes! 



158 THE BOOK OF JOB 

CHAP. XLI 

Out of his mouth, go coruscations; 19 

Fire sparks leap forth. 

Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, 20 

As seething pot and rushes. 

His breath enkindle th coals, 21 

And from his mouth issueth flame ! 

Strength dwelleth in his neck, 22 

And Terror danceth to his face ! 

Flakes of his flesh cleave fast: 23 

They're firm upon him ; they're not shaken. 

His heart is hard as stone; 24 

Yea, hard as nether millstone. 

At lifting up himself, the mighty are afraid; 25 

From consternation lose themselves. 

Lay at him sword, it cannot hold: 26 

Spear ! — Javelin ! — for the coat of mail ! — 

He counteth iron as straw; 27 

Brass, rotten wood. 

The bow's son cannot make him flee: 28 

Sling-stones with him are turned to stubble; 
Clubs are accounted chaff : 29 

He laugheth at the javelin's rush! 



VOICE FEOM THE WHIRLWIND 159 

CHAP. XLI 

His underparts sharp potsherds, 30 

He spreadeth on the mire a threshing-wain ! 

The deep he maketh boil like a pot; 31 

Maketh tho sea like an ointment pan! 
C'auseth a path to shine behind him; 32 

Would think the ocean hoary! 

On earth is not his like, 33 

The one created without fear. 

All lofty he beholdeth; 34 

He, over all the sons of pride, the king ! 

chap. XLII 
Then Job answered Jehovah and said: 1 

I know thou canst do all, 2 

And purpose cannot be cut off from thee. 

Who ? — this ? a-hiding counsel without knowl- 3 
edge! 

Therefore Fve uttered and not understood, 
Things wonderful above me and I knew not. 

Hear, now, and I will speak: 4 

Fll ask of thee, and do thou make me know ! 

By the ear's hearing have I heard of thee; 5 

But now mine eye doth see thee : 

Wherefore abhor I, and repent 6 

In dust and ashes! 



EPILOGUE 

CHAP. XLII 

And it was after Jehovah had spoken these 7 
words to Job, that Jehovah said to Eliphaz the 
Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and 
against thy two friends; for ye have not spoken 
of me right, as my servant Job. 

Now, therefore, take for you seven bullocks 8 
and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and 
offer up for you a burnt offering; and my serv- 
ant Job shall pray for you; for him will I ac- 
cept, that I deal not with you after your folly; 
for ye have not spoken of me right, like my serv- 
ant Job. 

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the 9 
Shuhite and Zophar the JSTaamathite went and 
did as Jehovah had commanded them; and Je- 
hovah accepted the face of Job. 

And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job 10 
upon his praying for his friends : and Jehovah 
gave Job twice as much as before. 

Then came to him all his brethren and all his 11 
sisters, and all acquainted with him before, and 
ate bread with him in his house ; and they con- 
doled with him and comforted him concerning 
all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him. 

160 



EPILOGUE 161 

CHAP. XLII 

Each also gave him a piece of money, and each 
a ring of gold. 

So Jehovah blessed the end of Job more than 12 
his beginning: and he had fourteen thousand 
sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand 
yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. 

He had also seven sons and three daughters. 13 

And he called the name of the first Jemima; 14 
and the name of the second Keziah; and the 
name of the third, Keren-hap-puch. 

And in all the land no women were found fair 15 
as the daughters of Job; and their father gave 
them inheritance among their brethren. 

And after this Job lived a hundred and forty 16 
years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons, four 
generations. 

So Job died, old and full of days. 17 



ABBEEVIATIONS 



Am. Bib. TJn. = American et = and. 



Bible Union. 

Am. Rev. = American Revis- 
ers (or Revision). 

ante — before. 

Arab. = Arabic (or Ara- 
bian) . 

A. V. =z Authorized ( or 
King James) Version. 

Bell. Gall. = Bello Gallico 
z=r Gallic War. 

B. (or Bib.) = Bible. 
B. C. = before Christ. 
Chap. — chapter. 

cf . = confer = compare. 

class. = classical. 

Com. Vers. = Common (or 

Authorized) Version, i. e. 

King James Vers. 
Cor. (or Corinth.) = Co- 
rinthians. 
Dan. == Daniel. 
Deut. = Deuteronomy. 
Diet. = dictionary. 
Dr. = Doctor. 

E. (or Egyp.) = Egyptian. 
E. V. = English (Revised) 

Version. 
Eccles. = Ecclesiastes. 
ed. = edition. 
e. g. = ex. gr. = exempli 

gratia = for the sake of 

example. 
Eng. = English. 
E. R. = Egyptian Ritual 

("Todtenbuch"). 



et al = and other. 

et seq. = and the following. 

etc. == et cetera = and the 
rest (or, and so forth). 

Ex. (or Exod.) = Exodus. 

Ezek. = Ezekiel. 

Gen. = Genesis. 

Germ. = German. 

Habak. = Habaklcuk. 

Hist. =z History. 

i. e. = id est = that is. 

incl. — inclusive. 

intro. =: introductory. 

infra = below = later on. 

Is. = Isaiah. 

Jer. (or J ere.) =z Jeremiah. 

Josh. = Joshua. 

Judg. = Judges. 

Lam. (or Lament.) = Lam- 
entations. 

Lat. = Latin. 

lit. == literal or literally. 

LXX = the Septuagint = 
the Seventy. 

marg. = margin (or mar- 
ginal). 

masc. = masculine gender. 

Matt. = Matthew. 

M. == Modern. 

Mer. of Ven. = Merchant of 
Venice. 

Meas. for Meas. = Measure 
for Measure. 

Mid. = Midsummer ( in Mid- 
summer Night's Dream). 



162 



ABBKEVIATIONS 



163 



M. = Modern (in M. R. B. 

= Modern Reader's Bible) . 
M. R. B. = Modern Reader's 

Bible. 
Mod. Read. Bib. = Modem 

Reader's Bible. 
Nat. = Natural. 
Num. = Numbers. 
0. T. = Old Testament, 
passim = at different places. 
Par. Lost = Milton's Para- 
dise Lost. 
part. = participle. 
per. (or pers.) = person (in 

grammar ) . 
plu. = plural, 
post = after, later on. 
Prel. = Prelude. 
Prof. — Professor. 
Prol. = Prologue. 
Prov. = Proverbs. 
Ps. = Psalm. 
q. v. = quod vide = which 

see. 
R. = Reader's (in M. R. B.) . 
R. = Ritual (in E. R.). 
Read. = Reader's. 
read. = reading ( in marg. 

read.). 



R. V. =: Revised Version (or 
Versions, Eng. and Am.). 

Rev. = Revisers, Revised, or 
Revision ( s ) . 

Revel. = Revelation. 

Bit. = Ritual. 

Rom. .= Romans. 

Sam. = Samuel. 

sc. = scilicet = to wit, 
namely. 

sc. = scene. 

Sem. = Seminary. 

Sept. == Septuagint = Sev- 
enty = Greek Vers, of the 
0. T. = LXX. 

seq. == sequentia = the fol- 
lowing. 

Shakes. = Shakespeare's. 

sing. == singular number. 

st. = stanza. 

Theo. = Theological. 

Unabr. = Unabridged. 

V. (or Vers.) Version (or 
Versions) of the Bible. 

Vulg. = Vulgate; i. e. " com- 
monly received. 55 Sub- 
stantially the Lat. Vers, 
prepared by Saint Jerome. 

Xen. — Xenophon. 

Zech. = Zechariah. 



If a jury of persons well instructed in literature 
were impanelled to pronounce upon the question 
what is the greatest poem in the world's great 
literatures, while on such a question unanimity 
would be impossible, yet I believe a large ma- 
jority would give their verdict in favour of the 
Book of Job. — Richard G. Moulton, Ph.D., The 
Modem Reader's Bible, 1897. 

No reader less dull than a clod can remain un- 
reverent and unthrilled in the presence of that 
magnificent poem, the Book of Job. — Arlo Bates, 
Talks on the Study of Literature, 1898. 



EXPLANATOEY NOTES 

Particular attention is invited to the character of 
the Explanatory Notes. For the most part they 
differ from those of other editors and translators in 
several particulars. 

1. As is the case in all of the masterpieces which 
he has edited, the notes are designed not to supersede 
but to stimulate thought. 

2. To this end, on most disputed points, the best 
authorities are cited in the most compact form, and 
the student is invited to decide for himself. 

3. The notes aim to give the results of the latest 
c itical research and the consensus of opinion among 
the best scholars. 

THE PROLOGUE. Chapter I, Verse 1. Uz. Name of a 
tribe akin to the Hebrews? Probably east of Palestine and 
north or northeast of Edom (Idumea). — Verses 2, 3. seven, 
three, five, thousand, hundred. " Mystical numbers ? " 
Idealization? — 3. substance = possessions, wealth. Always 
used of cattle, says Gesenius. — household = body of slaves? 
These and the cattle appear to be included in the " sub- 
stance " ? — 4. sisters, etc. Note the respect paid to them : 
so in the Epilogue, xlii, 15. — 6. a day, etc. 

" When, on such day as Heaven's great year brings forth," 

Par. Lost, v, 583. Plato's Great Year, the completed cycle 
of the ancient astronomers, was 25,920 common years. — 
sons of God = angels ? — the Satan (Heb. ) = the Adversary, 
the opposer. See our Introduction. — 10. for nought = 
with no expectation of being compensated? — 15. Sabeans. 
They came from the south? A portion of them were rich 
and powerful. — 16. fire of God = lightning? See 2 Kings, 

165 



a 



166 THE BOOK OF JOB 

i, 12, 14; Luke ix, 54. — 17. Chaldeans = the Carduchi, an- 
cestors of the Kurds ? — See Xenophon's Anabasis, TV, iii, 5 
et seq. — 19. great wind, etc.= wind (Heb. ruach) great 
from over (or the other side of) that desert. — the four 
corners, etc. Evidently a whirlwind? — 21. mother's, etc. 
Gesenius and B. Davidson cite this as metaphorical for 
mother Earth. — thither, etc. " A little while, and we shall 
all meet there, and our mother's bosom will screen us all! " 
Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, ii, iii. " Justly has Earth ac- 
quired the name of Mother," says Lucretius, Be Rerum 
Nat ura, v, 793. 

Chapter II, 4. Skin for skin. Proverbial? Like saying, 
A man will give his life to save his life ? " — 7. sore boils, 
etc. Indicating " black leprosy " or " elephantiasis ? " — ■ 
"Looks more like smallpox" (W. Jennings). "Botch of 
Egypt " ( Royds ) . — 8. ashes, etc. Outside of almost every 
village was a great heap of dumped garbage, rubbish, dung, 
etc., that had been accumulating and often burning from 
time immemorial. In the course of ages " It becomes," says 
Wetzstein, quoted by Delitzsch, " a solid hill," often over- 
topping the village. On such a heap, the lepers, not per- 
mitted to enter the village, dragged out a miserable exist- 
ence. — 9. his wife, etc. Diaboli Adjutrix (Devil's Female 
Assistant ) , says Augustine ! Genung declares, " She has a 
true feminine tendency to think in the concrete, and leap 
straight to conclusions ! " " Recognized by the Satan as an 
unconscious ally " ( Cheyne ) . The Tar gum ( Chaldean Vers. 
of the Old Testament) gives her the name Dinah! — -11. 
Temanite — Shuhite — Naamathite. Teman is said to have 
been a clan of Edom, southeasterly from Palestine. Gen. 
xxxvi, 4, 11, 15. The country was famed for the wisdom 
of its inhabitants — Shuah is said to have been the name of 
a tribe somewhere east of Palestine. Gen. xxv, 2 — Naa- 
mah, a city in the eastern portion of the district allotted to 
Judah. Josh, xv, 12, 41. — 12. lifted up their voice and 
wept. Grief more demonstrative than now? — 13. none 
spake a word. 

" The Grief that does not speak 
Whispers the o'er fraught heart and bids it break." 

(Shakespeare's Macbeth, TV, iii, 209, 210, the present writer's 
edition ) . — grief =, pain. Il probably includes bodily pain, 
as when FalstafT speaks of the " grief of a wound." — " The 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 167 

length of time during which they sat in silence, seven days 
and seven nights (the time of mourning for the dead, Gen. 
1, 10; / Sam. xxxi, 13), shows the profound impression 
made upon them" (Davidson). 

Chapter III. This chapter Dean Swift is said to have 
made a practice of reading on the anniversary of his birth! 

— Verse 3. PERISH . . . conceived. We endeavor to 
translate the verse literally: there is no relative word, 
" wherein," " that," or " which," in the original. — in it I 
was born. This gives the reason why he wishes the day 
blotted out. So in the next line he gives his reason for a 
similar wish in regard to the night. — Note the singular re- 
semblance of verses 3-10 to Jeremiah xx, 14-18. See 
Shakespeare's King John, in, i, 83 et seq. — A man, etc. 
John xvi, 21. — 5. Death-shade = Shadow of Death = " black- 
ness of darkness"; like that of the classical Erebus? — 
Affright it, etc. Such is the emphatic order of the Heb. 
text. — 7. barren. So the Revised Vers. The Common 
Vers, has " solitary " : but solitariness has already been em- 
phasized in the preceding verse. — 8. who curse = enchant- 
ers who claim to cast a spell over a day to make it unlucky 

(Marshall) ? — -leviathan (Heb.) =the "twisting" or 
" winding " one ? the crocodile ? the whale ? a fabulous mon- 
ster ? " Here," says Dr. Cook, " probably a symbol of the 
Dragon, the enemy of light." It appears to have sometimes 
been called Rahab, or the Serpent, and supposed to cause 
convulsions in the sea, storms and eclipses in the sky. 
Magicians claimed power over him. See, post, xli, 1 ; Is. 
xxvii, 1; Par. Lost, I, 201 (Sprague's ed.). — 9. eyelashes 
of Morn (Heb.) =the first rays of the rising sun (Gesen- 
ius) ? Not the eyelids, which cover and close the eye, but 
the lashes. Sophocles {Antigone, 102, 103) has eyelids of 
the golden day. Milton (Lycidas, 25) is careful to use the 
word "opening" before eyelids. (See Sprague's ed.). The 
same word in xli, 18 is put for the eyes themselves. — 10, 11. 
birth, mother; close euphemisms. — expire (Heb. breathe 
out). — 12. ready = ready beforehand to receive. See Gen. 
1, 23. — 14. places desolate = palaces destined to fall into 
ruins? rock tombs? mouldering monuments? desolate cities 
again built up? ruins rebuilt? All these interpretations 
have supporters. — 18. bondmen (Heb.) = captives enslaved. 

— Taskmaster (Heb.) = slave-driver. — 22. joy to exulta- 
tion (Heb.) — 23. way = way out of difficulties? — hedged 
in. See xix, 8. — 24. to my food's face (Heb.) = before I 



168 THE BOOK OF JOB 

eat (Com. and Rev. Vers.) ? in presence of my food, along 
with my food (Conant) ? like my meat (Driver, Jennings) ? 
See " I have supped full with horrors," Macbeth, v, v, 13 
(Sprague's ed.) — my sighings (Heb.). The word is 
plural. — 25. feared a fear (Heb.) = greatly feared (Com. 
Vers.) ? imagined an evil (Davidson) ? The Heb. idiom is 
common and expresses emphasis. — Job's complaint in this 
chapter strikingly reminds of kindred passages ; e. g., Sopho- 
cles' Oedipus Coloneus (iv, 1224; in Franklin's Translation, 
1066), "Not to have been born is every way best"; Tenny- 
son's Two Voices, st. i; Byron's Euthanasia, last st. ; J ere. 
XX, 14-18; Matt, xxvi, 24. 

Chapter IV, Verse 2. Should venture word with thee 
(Heb.) =if one should, etc. — 3. strengthened, etc. Isaiah 
xxxv, 3. Which author echoes the other ? — 4. bowing 
(Heb.) =3 bending, sinking, or giving way from feebleness. 
See Hebrews xii, 12. — 5. dismayed (Heb.). The word 
" troubled " seems vague and feeble. Conant renders it 
" confounded," which is perhaps too strong ; yet great fear 
is implied. — 6. piety. This word appears to express bet- 
ter than " fear " the sentiment combined of love and rever- 
ence? — 9. nostrils' (Heb. ) ranger's. Striking Heb. an- 
thropomorphism ! yet hardly more so than Tennyson's " Lo, 
thy foot Is on the skull which thou hast made! " In Memo- 
Ham, st. 2. — 11. she-lion. So Gesenius. — 12. caught . . . 
a whisper (Heb.) — 13. thoughts distract. The Heb. im- 
plies divided or distracting thoughts. Delitzsch gives 
gedankengewirr; Genung, "wandering thoughts"; Driver, 
" distracting thoughts." See note on Par. Lost, n, 148 
(Sprague's ed.) — In falling (Heb.) — 14. my many (Heb. 
my multitude) — See Virgil's Mneid, n, 120. — 15. spirit. 
The Heb. is ruh, breath, or gentle wind. We may under- 
stand the word " spirit " here to retain something of its 
etymological sense, from spirare, to breathe. Cheyne uses 
the word " wind." Davidson and Peake prefer (i breath," 
remarking that " spirit " in the Old Testament is not used 
for apparition. See Ps. civ, 4; I Kings, xix, 11; Acts ii, 2. 
— 16. It stood, etc. See Par. Lost, n, 665-670, and note 
(Sprague's ed. ) ; also Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Act 
II, sc. iv, describing Demogorgon. — apparition. The Com- 
Vers. has " image " ; but an image is a likeness, and here 
is none. The Revisers give, as the second line of 16, " A 
form was before mine eyes." Better, perhaps, the idea of 
formlessness vague and vast, as in the description by Milton 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 169 

and Shelley of Death and Demogorgon? — 17. before God 
(Heb. ) =in the presence of God? more than God? We re- 
tain the conciseness and ambiguity of the Heb. — 18. serv- 
ants = " the seven spirits" {Revel, i, 4; Ps. ciii, 20)? — 
frailty. " The root is Aramaic, not Heb.," says Marshall, 
" meaning frailty or error, rather than folly." — 19. How 
much more. All late versions use " more " instead of 
" less." The Heb. allows either. — clay houses. See 2 Co- 
rinth, v, 1; Mer. of Venice, v, i, 64 (Sprague's ed.). — Who 
. . . moth (Heb.) — are crushed, i". e., the dwellers (Merx, 
Oonant, Driver ) ? the houses ( Siegfried ) ? The Eng. Rev. 
prefer "which"; the Am., " who," before crushed. — before 
= sooner than (Davidson, Marshall, Jennings) ? by (Noyes, 
Barnes) ? from the (Gilbert) ? like (Gesenius, Conant, Ray- 
mond, Peake, Genung) ? (sooner, or easier than, or as easily 
as (Driver)? — 20. beaten down (Heb. beaten in pieces). 

— Unheeded. (Heb. without regarding) . So in substance 
all the vers. — 21. tent-cord (Heb.) This holds up the tent, 
the bodily frame. So Renan and most of the late vers., fol- 
lowing Gesenius. Cf. Isaiah xxxviii, 12. 

Chapter V, 1. Call, now: will there be answering thee 
(Heb. ) — the Holy =: saints ? angels ? — -2. wrath = pas- 
sionate impatience. — 3. I. Emphatic pronoun. — cursed = 
(Heb. named as doomed) — 4. gate, etc. See on xxix, 7. 

— 5. Text doubtful. — pant (Heb.). — 6. not from dust, 
etc. See Longfellow's By the Fireside (Resignation). — 7. 
sons of flame = sparks ( Com. and Rev. Vers. ; also Dill- 
mann, Noyes, Barnes, Cook, Davidson, Genung, Gilbert, O. 
Cary, Marshall) ? birds of prey (Jerome, Good, Hitzig, Um- 
breit) ? ignited arrows (Cheyne) ? sons of lightning, i. e., 
birds of prey which fly swift as lightning (Gesenius, Re- 
nan) ? glittering javelins (Schultens) ? young of the winged 
(Siegfried) ? angels ( Schlottmann, Hoffman) ? — 12. perform 
the purpose (Heb.). — 13. ensnareth (Heb.) — Headlong 
it! Hebrew conciseness. — 15. from their mouth (Heb.). 
Text doubtful. See Rev. i, 16; Heb. iv, 12; Eph. vi, 17; Ps. 
lv, 21, 1. c; lvii, 4; lix, 7. — 17. spurn not (Heb.) — 18. 
He, emphatic. — 20. hand of the sword (Heb.) — 21. 
tongue's scourge (Heb.). Horace's verbera linguae, lashes 
of the tongue; J ere. xviii, 18. — 22. beasts. Human in- 
cluded? — -24. Peace. "The Pilgrim they laid in a large 
upper chamber, whose windows opened toward the sun- 
rising; and the name of that chamber was Peace. Where 
he slept till break of day and then he awoke and sang." 



170 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Sprague's ed.) — fold (Heb.) 
A fold or pasture would seem here a more natural object of 
visitation than a dwelling. — 26. in full age, etc. Death 
in itself no evil ! See Par. Lost, xi, 536 — up cometh 
(Heb.) =is garnered. — 27. thou. Emphatic. — for thyself 
(Heb.). 

Davidson finds in this speech of Eliphaz " a surprising 
literary skill . . . something very wise and considerate, as 
well as profoundly reverential." Marshall complains of its 
lack " of sympathy." — Byron in his Hebrew Melodies has 
well versified the description of the vision in Chapter IV. 

Chapter VI. Verse 2. to weigh! — were weighed == 
were weighed with fairness and accuracy. We translate 
with literal exactness. — lifted in the scales (Heb.). The 
old-fashioned scales, a horizontal lever with discs dependent 
from the ends. — 3. wild = rash. This reminds of Portia's 
" You speak upon the rack Where men enforced do speak 
anything." Mer. of Yen., in, ii, 32, 33 (Sprague's ed.) — 
4. poison drinketh, eto. = poison absorbs my power of 
thought (Sept., Vulg., Rosenmuller, Cook) ? my spirit drinks 
the poison (Rev. Vers., Davidson, Genung, O. Cary, Peake, 
Marshall, Jennings) ? See Rom. and Juliet, in, v, 58; 
Sophocles' Trachiniae, 1055—6; Lucan's Pharsalia, IX, 741 
et seq.; Virgil's Mneid, xn, 856-8. — God's terrors range 
themselves (Heb.) — This line is somewhat doubtful. 
There is no word in the original that can be translated 
" against." Intentional ellipsis ? The Heb. word in verse 
iii, rendered " wild " or " rash," for which the Com. Vers, 
has " swallowed up," seems to imply a choking or inarticu- 
lateness ! — 5. The thought in this verse reminds of Brown- 
ing's in Rabbi Ben Ezra, st. iv, " Irks care the crop-full 
bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?" — 10. midst 
pain that spareth not (Heb.) — not hid = not denied = 
not renounced == made manifest, proclaimed? — 11. wait 
( Heb. ) =: hold out, bear up, still hope ? — end — end of 
life? end of affliction? end in view? — 13. Is not my help 
within me nothingness (Heb.) — 14. (Heb. mas, melting) 
= one that is melting away, or is dissolving, losing the co- 
herence and strength of life, fainting? See in Hamlet, I, ii, 
129 (Sprague's ed.), 

" Oh that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew I " 



EXPLANATOEY NOTES 171 

— Even forsaketh, etc=L even though, apostatizing, he for- 
sakes? — 15. stream of brooks (Heb.) Is the channel filled 
with drifting sand? — 16. Which. Brooks? channels? 
stream? — 17. vanish = (Heb. are cut off) are cut off from 
view? — 18. Caravans. The same Heb. word is used for 
" paths." — -Tip to the waste they go, etc. (Heb. )= the 
streams evaporate, and so are lost in air (Tayler Lewis) ? 
the streams flow out into the desert, and are lost in sand 
(Barnes, Davidson) ? the wayfarers are turned aside and 
perish (Genung, Gesenius) ? the caravans ascend in the 
desert and perish (Conant, Cheyne, Gilbert, 0. Gary) ? the 
caravans turn aside to follow up the channel, hoping to 
find water . . . and they perish (Noyes, Raymond, Cook, 
Driver, Peake)? — 19, 20. Recollected finely in Thomson's 
Seasons {Summer, 980-2). — 21. For ye . . . now. Text 
doubtful — Terror (Heb.) — 22. a present make for me 
(Heb.) =2 give for me a gift in the nature of a bribe? — 25. 
upbraiding prove (Heb.) — 26. words of the despairing 
= delirious words (Cheyne)? — 27. " Proverbial expres- 
sions," says Noyes. — cast = cast lots (to see which should 
have as slave the orphan child of a debtor ! ) — of your 
friend make merchandise, etc. The Heb. has dig for your 
friend = dig a pit for your friend, or lay a snare for him? 
" Haste to sacrifice friendship in order to get on the right 
side of God, equivalent, in a sense, to making traffic over 
their friend ? " Genung. Did they fancy that his anguish 
somehow "squared accounts" between guilt and justice? — 
28. to your faces, — if I lie! =:it will be perfectly evi- 
dent to you if I lie ? — 29. in it ±= in this matter? — 30. my 
taste = (Heb. my palate) —my moral sense. Cannot my 
conscience discern the right and the wrong of my calamity; 
t. c, whether it is deserved or undeserved? So Marshall, 
Jennings, and Driver, following Davidson; but the word 
" calamity " is doubtful. 

Chapter VII. Verse 1. War-service not? to man on 
earth? (Heb.) =is not life a campaign? a continuous war- 
fare? The Vulg. has militia, a period of military service. 
In Num. i, 3, the word is rendered " war." " Not a May- 
Day game is this life, but a struggle and a march." Car- 
lyle. There is no " not " in the 2d line. Should it be sup- 
plied mentally ? =3 2. panteth ( Heb. ) — shade = twilight 
(Davidson, Peake, Jennings) ? shadow on the dial (Gesen- 
ius ) ? any protection from the sun ? = 3. made to inherit 



172 THE BOOK OF JOB 

(Heb.) — misery. So the Am. Rev. The Com. and Eng. 
Rev. have "vanity," signifying emptiness, the months being 
empty of all but pain ! — 4. In the second line translators 
differ, some reading, "And night be gone." — 5. Symp- 
toms of elephantiasis? Royds aptly cites Deut. xxviii, 65- 
67. See also 22, 27, 35. — Closeth . . . breaketh, etc. So 
Gesenius, B. Davidson, Jennings, and Rev. Vers. — 5. 
Swifter my days, etc, " Life as a whole is meant," says 
Davidson. — 9. Sheol (Heb., etymologically a cavity, cavern, 
or hollow subterranean place) —the Underworld, Hades? 
Davidson remarks, " The place of the departed is never in 
the Old Testament confounded with the grave." For a con- 
ception quite prevalent among the Hebrews as to the con- 
dition of disembodied spirits, see Eccles. ix, 5, 6; also Is. 
xiv, 9 ? 10; Ps. vi, 5; I Sam. xxviii, 11-19; Job xxvi, 5, 6. — 
11. spirit. See note on iv, 15. — 12. sea-monster. " Refer- 
ring," says Davidson, u to the half poetical, half mytho- 
logical conception of the raging sea itself as a furious 
monster." Young's translation gives dragon. See iii, 8; 
ix, 13 ; xxvi, 12. — 14. dreams . . . visions. Symptoms of 
black leprosy? So "strangling" in 15? — Shakespeare's 
lines will be recalled — 

•* sleep 
In the affliction of these terrible dreams 
That shake us nightly 1 Better be with the dead." 

See Macbeth, iii 2 ii, 18, 19, 20 (Sprague's ed.). — 15. soul. 
(Heb. breath.) See iv, 15. — my bones (Heb.) =my pains 
( Merx, Bickel, Cheyne ) ? pains in my bones ? skeleton ? — 
16. I loathe! = I loathe life (Com. and Rev. Vers.)? 
Noyes and many others would read instead of " loathe," 
melt a/way, as in Ps\ lviii, 7. Gesenius, B. Davidson, and 
Bagster, in their lexicons give 6i melt away, dissolve, waste," 
citing this verse. — would not. Most translators now pre- 
fer " shall not." See Muhlenberg's exquisite hymn. — 
breath (Heb.). Emblem of evanescence? of worthlessness ? 
— Verses 17, 18, 19. Irony? Contrast God's attitude, as 
it seems to Job, with that conceived by the psalmist (Ps. 
viii, 4, 5; cxliv, 3! So important the standpoint! — 17. 
heart (Heb.) = mind; attention, not tender regard? — 19. 
till I swallow, etc. Proverbial ; like till I " catch my 
breath"? — 20. Watcher (Heb.) = critical observer? 
" Spy," say Reman and Royds. Commentators quote In 
Memoriam, Introd. st. 9. — mark = target, butt? — 21. lie 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 173 

down (Heb.) — diligently seek (Heb.). The form of the 
verb implies diligent, or, as in viii, 4, early search. 

Chapter VIII. 2, Till when (Heb.) — mighty wind, etc. 
Marshall cites Aristophenes' tuphon, sl furious storm, a 
typhoon (Frogs, line 872) as descriptive of "impassioned 
utterance." — 3. Judgment . . . Tightness (Heb.) = legal 
right . . . equity right? So, apparently, the Am. (1901) 
Rev. — 4. sons (Heb. masc.) — sinned, etc. Insinuation 
cruel? See i, 18, 19. — into their Transgression's hand, etc. 
(Heb.). So the Rev. Vers. — 5. supplication make (Heb.) 

— 6. wake =: bestir Himself (Driver)? — 7. were. Em- 
phatic. Cook, however, prefers was, referring to Job's for- 
mer state — 8. age = generation. — apply = have recourse. 

— 9. shadow. Poets love the "shadow" imagery; e. g., see 
Hamlet, n, ii, 254-260 ( Sprague's ed. ) . iEschylus has 
" shadow *s image"; Pindar, "shadow's dream"; Sopho- 
cles, "cloud's shadow," etc. — '11-19. Proverbial expres- 
sions from forefathers ? — 11. rush = papyrus.— flag = 
reed-grass ? " An Egyptian word," says Gesenius, " adopted 
not only into the Hebrew, but also into the Greek." — 14. 
confidence. So the Rev. Vers. — house (Heb.) =web. — 
15. thereby (Heb. by it) — 16. in the sun's face (Heb.) — 
And forth . . garden go (Heb.) — 17. house of stones 

(Heb.). Even a house of stone shall not endure! — 18. If 
from . • . be destroyed (Heb.). So the Rev. Vers. — Allu- 
sion to vii, 10? — 19. dust (Heb.) = loose soil? earth? — 
20. take the evil-doers' hand (Heb.) =help the evil-doers 
(Com. Vers.)? uphold the evil-doers (Rev. Vers.)? — 21. 
shouts of joy. See 1 Sam. iv, 4, 5; 2 Sam. vi, 15; Ezra 
iii, 11. — 22. with shame, etc. Ps. xxxv, 26; cix, 29; Job 
xxix, 14; Macbeth, i, vii, 33-36 (Sprague's ed.) — be noth- 
ingness (Heb.). 

Chapter IX, 2. I know so (Heb.). Referring to Bildad's 
position in viii, 3, 20? — just with Godwin the view of 
God (Gesenius) ? in the presence of God? Has he in mind 
the words of Eliphaz, iv, 17? — 4. hardened (Heb.) = 
hardened himself? stoutly asserted himself? — been safe 
( Heb. ) =3 prospered ( Com. and Rev. Vers ) ? been unpun- 
ished? — 5. and they know not (Heb.) = ere they are 
aware (Conant) ? As if mountains were capable of con- 
sciousness! — 8. ocean's = of that upper ocean, above which 
dwells the invisible God ( Cheyne ) ? — heights = high waves 
(of the sea)? — 9. maketh. The process of creation still 
going on ? — Bear = Ursa Major ( Gesenius ) ? Orion = the 



174 THE BOOK OF JOB 

constellation figured as a mighty giant? — Pleiades = clus- 
ter (Gesenius and most commentators)? — Chambers, etc. 
-= regions in the southern sky? See on xxxviii, 31, 32 2 and 
the Class. Diet. Amos v, 8. — 11. glideth on (Heb.) —12. 
seizeth (Heb.; — turn Him back (Heb.). See xi, 10. — 13. 
Rahab == boisterousness ? arrogancy? pride? a personifica- 
tion of these ? Egypt ? a huge antediluvian monster ? the sea 
itself conceived of as a raging monster ? a possible legendary 
enemy of Jehovah? the storm dragon which fought against 
the sun (Cheyne) ? a constellation (Ewald, Hirzel, Renan) ? 
Tiamat, the chaos-dragon of the Babylonians (Peake) ? 
See iii, 8; vii, 12; xxv, 2; xxvi, 12; A. B. Davidson, pp. 
69, 185. — 14. I. Emphatic. — 16. called = summoned, or 
cited him to appear in court? — had answered = had made 
formal answer in the suit? — 17. He who (Heb.) = because 
(He is so cruel that He)? — without cause = causelessly? 

— wounds. Prov. xxiii, 29. — 19. If as to strength, lo, 
strong, etc. (Heb.). May we paraphrase thus: If we take 
into account a party's influence in court, lo, He's all-power- 
ful! And if we talk of strict justice, who will see that a 
time is assigned me to present and argue my case ? — 20. 
wrong. Etymologically our word " wrong " reproduces the 
sense of the Heb., each meaning twisted or crooked. — 21. 
my breath. (Heb.) =my soul (Com. Vers.) ? myself (Rev. 
Vers. ) ? — ■ 22. It . . . one = it makes no difference, right- 
eous or wicked (Barnes, Ewald, Cook, etc. citing Eccles. ix, 
2) ? it is all one, whether Job be crushed now or writhe in 
anguish a little longer (Genung) ? — 23. trial (Heb.) = 
the test by calamity? — 24. If not, who is it, then (Heb.) 

— if it is not God, then who is he that wrongs me? — 25. 
courier (Heb.) = runner, swift mail-carrier. — 26. skiffs of 
reed (Heb.) — light, swift boats of papyrus or bulrush 
(Gesenius) ? Pliny and Lucan speak of them. 7s. xviii, 2. 
Another Heb. reading is ships of desire, i. e., pleasure craft 

— 27. Looks = (Heb. faces). — 'brighten up (Heb.) — 28. 
sorrows = woes ? pains? — 29. I, I am to be guilty (Heb.) 
I emphatic. — to be guilty = sure to be condemned? — toil 
= labor (to clear myself)? — 30. snow (Heb.). Emblem 
of purity — cleanse my hands with lye (Heb.) — 32. to- 
gether enter into judgment = join issue for trials meet 
in court as plaintiff and defendant for a hearing and a 
decision. — 33. daysman = arbitrator or umpire? mediator? 
So called because he appointed a day (Lat. diem) for trial? 
Genung takes the word to be prophetic. — See Fcerie Queene, 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 175 

n, viii, 28. — '35. For not so I within myself (Heb.) = for 
at the bottom of my heart I am not what I seem (Renan) ? 
my mind is not such within me; viz., that I should fear 
(Gesenius) ? I am conscious of nothing that would make me 
dread a controversy with God (Marshall) ? in my own con- 
sciousness I am not so or such that I should fear Him 
(Noyes, Hirzel, Conant, Cook, Davidson, Raymond, 0. Cary, 
Driver) ? for as I am now, I am not myself (Tayler Lewis, 
Genung) ? 

Chapter X. 1. soul (Heb. breath) . See iv, 15. — let 
loose upon me ( Heb. ) = give loose rein to ( Gesenius ) ? — 
2. shine, etc. See Macbeth, in, i, 7 ( Sprague's ed. ) . — 7. 
Upon thy knowledge (Heb.) = although thou knowest. — 
guilty (Heb.) — delivering (Heb.) — 8. Thy hands . . . 
round about (Heb.) — destroyest, etc. Siegfried (Critical 
ed., 1893) would emend so as to get the meaning, '" Thou 
didst plunge me in altogether " ( so that I am surrounded 
by waves of sorrow). — 11. interwoven, etc. Renan uses 
" interlaced." Says Carlyle, " To the eye of pure reason, 
what is man? . . . Round his mysterious me ... a gar- 
ment of flesh . . . contextured in the loom of heaven . . . 
sky- woven and worthy of a God." Sartor Resartus, I, 10. 
See first lines of Browning's " An Epistle of Karshish." — 
13. these . . . this = the particulars specified in 14-17? 
features in what he conceives to be God's plan against him? 
Genung, interpreting, imagines Job saying bitterly, " This, 
then, is what creation and preservation mean!" — 15. 
ignominy (Heb.). So Rev. Vers. — 16. if lift up itself = 
if my misery increases (Noyes, Barnes, Tayler Lewis et al.) ? 
if my head lift itself (Gesenius, Ewald, Dillmann, Davidson, 
Raymond, Gilbert, Marshall, Driver, Rev. Vers., Peake, 
Jennings ) ? — marvelous. Ironical ? — 17. witnesses = the 
the plagues or strokes testifying divine displeasure? proofs 
( Jennings ) ? — ■ Bitter irony here, says Peake. Jennings 
concurs. — changes and hosts ( Heb. ) = host after host, 
relays of hosts. Such hendiadys not infrequent in other 
languages? — 20. Leave off; let me alone. Heb. put from 
me (i. e., put off thy hand from me) . Texts, however, differ 
here. — brighten up (Heb.) =;take comfort a little (Com. 
Vers.). See As You Like It, II, vi, 5 (Sprague's ed.). So 
in ix, 27, q. v. — 22. darkness dense (Heb.). See Exod. x, 
21-23. — Even the light as darkness. See notes on Milton's 

*' No light, but rather darkness visible," 
Par. Lost, i, 63 (Sprague's ed.). 



176 THE BOOK OP JOB 

Chapter XI. 1. Naamathite. See ii, 11. — 2. maa of lips 
(Heb.) — 3. boastings (Heb.) = babblings? falsehoods? 
Referring to assertions of innocence in x, 7, etc. ? — 4. in 
thine eyes ~ in thy sight, Lord ! Siegfried ( Critical ed., 
1893) changes thine to " mine." We adhere to the Maso- 
retic text, because Job insists that God knows him to be 
innocent, though treating him as guilty! Siegfried says, 
"Jehovah regards him as an evil-doer." See ix, 30, 31; 
x, 7. — 5. oh that (Heb. mi yitten = tcho'll give?) the Heb. 
for who will give ? is a common formula for wishing. — 6. 
For double folds to Wisdom (Heb.). So Gesenius. Real 
Wisdom (understanding of "the eternal verities"?) is 
twofold ? Prof. Tayler Lewis explains thus : " There is 

(a) divine wisdom, or the mystery of God's providence; and 

(b) the wisdom which is for man, the fear of the Lord, 
submission, and departure from evil." — doth cause to be 
forgotten For thee of thy iniquity (Heb.). The of is 
partitive = some of. " God hath remitted to thee a por- 
tion of thy guilt." Gesenius. Jennings renders it, God 
may be exacting less than thy wickedness deserveth. — 7. 
depths (Heb.) = immensity, something to be searched out 
and explored (Driver) ? the intensely (sic) innermost, es- 
sential nature (Marshall) ? secret recesses (Halsted) ? 
Same word translated "recesses" in xxxviii, 16 (Rev. 
Vers.). See I Corinth, ii, 10. — 8. Heights of the heavens 

(Heb.) — Sheol (Heb.). See note on vi^ 9. — 10. let shut 
up ( Heb. ) =: cause to be arrested and confined. — assembly 
(Heb.) =: public judicial assembly? session of court? See 
/ Kings, xxi, 9, 13; Prov. v, 14. — turn him back (Heb.). 
See ix 2 12. — 11. though He mark it not. (Heb. even doth 
He not consider it.) But interpretations vary. — 12. But 
. . . hollow . . . born. We endeavor to reproduce the 
verse literally; but commentators differ. Davidson re- 
marks : " The verse perhaps should read, 

But an empty man will become wise 
When a wild ass colt is born a man! " 



a 



The one thing," adds Davidson, " will happen when the 
other happens. The verse seems to be in the shape of a 
proverb, and is full of alliterations which cannot be repro- 
duced in translation." We give the words in the exact 
order and sense oi the original. — 15. solid (Heb.). Like 
a metal casting. — thou. Emphatic " thou." — 17. life 
shall rise above the noon (Heb.) = life shall be brighter 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 177 

than noonday. — Darkness . . . as morning (Heb.). Gesen- 
ius and some others render thus: Though thou art covered 
with darkness thou shalt be as morning. The Heb. text 
lends itself to either version. — 18. secure = free from care, 
not anxious. This strict etymological sense of secure was 
common at the time of the making of the King James Ver- 
sion (1611). See Macbeth, in, v, 32, and the notes 
( Sprague's ed. ) — look around ( Heb. dig ) = search care- 
fully =r look carefully about to see if all is well before re- 
tiring? — 19. make suit to thee (Heb. smooth, or stroke, 
thy face) = entreat thy favor; as in Ps. xlv, 12)? To 
'" stroke the face " denotes, of course, to use complimentary 
words, blandishments. — 20. waste away (Heb.) — flight 
shall from them fly (Heb.) = every resource shall fail 
them and vanish. — breathing out the life (Heb. breath). 
" Breath " is often put for life or soul, and perhaps the 
word should, be so given here. The student may recall the 
words of Belial, <( Our final hope is flat despair " : Par, 
Lost, ii, 142 (Sprague's ed.). 

Chapter XII. 2. A people ye, no doubt = you three are 
doubtless the embodiment of the wisdom and worth of all 
mankind ( Cheyne ) ? mankind ye ( Young ) ? ye are the whole 
human race (Gesenius) ? ye are a trinity of wisdom (Mar- 
shall ) ? — wisdom with, you '11 die. Bitter irony ? — 3. 
heart = brains ? Here, as often if not always, the Heb. 
word (lebab) includes intellect. See viii, 10; ix, 4, etc. 
— -I, not below you falling (Heb.) =;I not being inferior 
to you? I not being overthrown by you, as a wrestler is 
overthrown by a stronger antagonist (Cook) ? I am not 
fallen more than you ( Young's Translation ) ? — such as 
these (Heb.) =such utterances as these, or such views as 
yours? — with whom are not — who is not familiar with 
such platitudes? — 4. calling on God (Heb.). See xxix, 
2-5. — just! upright! laughing-stock! (Heb.) — 5. In 
thoughts at ease, contempt, etc. Contempt, because the 
unfortunate are deemed to deserve adversity ? — ready . . . 
foot ( Heb. ) =: ( contempt ) ready for those of faltering feet ? 
— 6. to those angering God, security (Heb.) z=to those 
who provoke God there is security. — in his hand a god. 
Interpretation doubtful. Possibly a small graven image 
is meant. In Virgil's Mneid (x, 774) the atheist Mezen- 
tius invokes as a god his right hand! The historian Ammi- 
anus (330-395) is quoted by the commentators as saying 
of some Scythian tribes that they deify their swords. In 



178 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Habak. i 2 11 (Rev. Vers.)? we read, "he whose might is his 
god," "Titanic arrogance," says Marshall. — Verses 7-10. 
Admitting in these verses the truth that God is everywhere 
immanent in nature, does Job concede in verses 11 and 12 
what Bildad had claimed (Chap, viii, 8, 9, 10), that the 
aged and the ancients are the chief sources of wisdom ? Or 
is he rather questioning their infallibility, and pointing to 
God as the embodiment of wisdom and power ? And in 
Chapters xiii and xiv does he proceed to show that in all 
this he finds no relief ? — 9. in all = in the case of all, or 
by all (Heiligstedt, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Conant, Cook, 
Driver)? among all, who — i. e., which one of all — ■ (De 
Wette, Ewald, Jennings et al.) ? The marg. read., R. V., has 
by. — Jehovah's. " The ineffable name," not found else- 
where in the debate. — 10. in whose hand . . . flesh of man 
(Heb. ). The Common (with alternative reading "life") 
and Rev. Vers, give "soul" (Heb. nephesh) in the 1st line, 
and " breath " ( Heb. ruach ) in the 2d. Are they psycho- 
logically correct? May not all with more propriety be 
said in the 1st line to have life; in the 2d line to have soul 
or spirit? — 11, 12. Says Davidson, "Verse 11 indicates 
the instrument, verse 12 the source." Conant makes verse 
12 interrogative. — 13. HIM emphatic. — Foresight and 
skill. " A duality of wisdom ! " So Lewis and Delitzsch. 

— skill unerring. This is Professor Lewis's substituted 
phrase for the rather vague word " understanding." " An 
ordered plan as well as insight" (Jennings). — 14. shutteth 
up, etc. See xi, 10. — 16. Truth Eternal = the essential 
reality? the "eternal verities"? — 17. despoiled (Heb. 
stripped; i. e., naked and barefoot) — 18. bond of kings 
=3 king's authority (Davidson) ? that which they had bound 
on others (Marshall)? their to be emphasized? — girdle 
= waistcloth, badge of captive (Driver)? — Interpretation 
disputed. — 19. priests (Heb.) — the established = those 
holding long-established dignities. — 20. Lip. Metonymy, for 
eloquent speech ? — wisdom ( Heb. taste = discernment ) ? 

— 21. looseth girdle, etc. "As the garments were girt up 
for active labor or battle, to loose the girdle means to in- 
capacitate." Davidson. — 22. Shadow, etc. See iii, 5. — 23. 
and bringeth, etc. Text obscure. — 24. Heart — mind? un- 
derstanding? Note on xii, 3. — 25. grope = (Heb. feel out, 
explore with the hands. ) So Gesenius. — darkness. Exod. 
x, 21-23. — without light (Heb. and no light). Here Sieg- 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 179 

fried elides the "and" (vav) , as it is omitted in the 2d 
line of verse 24 before the Heb. for no way (or pathless). 

Chapter XIII. 1. mine. Emphatic. — 2. I falling, etc. 
xii, 3. — 4. forgers. Cheyne gives " plasterers." — 5. Made 
deaf, oh would ye might be dumb = oh that, deafened, ye 
might be silent. The frequent interjectional phrase, " oh 
that/' is in the Heb. literally, " Who'll give ! " See on 
xi, 5. — The implication is, Oh that ye might be lastingly 
silent ! — 7. The order of words in the Heb. text seems to 
bring out with emphasis a surprise that such things should 
be done for God. Note the italicised words in 7, 8, 9. — 8. 
His face . . . lift up =: accept His person, show Him par- 
tiality ? — contend ( Heb. ) = " play advocate " ? — 9. search, 
you out ( Heb. ) = find and lay bare your real motives ? — 
10. Reproving He'll reprove (Heb.) =He surely will re- 
prove. Participle thus used for emphasis, a frequent Heb. 
idiom. — to faces (Heb. ) =to persons. As in verse 8.- — 
12. memory saws (Heb.) = memorized maxims? sayings 
worthy of remembrance ? — similitudes ( Heb. ) — shield- 
bosses (Heb). See xv, 26. The word "bodies" of the 
Com. Vers, is vague. The Rev. Vers, has " defences " ; the 
objection to which is that the protuberances, or convex or 
curved structures, whatever they are, are offensive as well 
as defensive. Gesenius has thus : " Bulwarks of clay are 
your bulwarks": "behind which (weak and feeble argu- 
ments), his opponents entrench themselves." — 13. I will 
speak. I emphatic (Driver)? — 14. Metaphors used to 
express desperation. But the exact meaning is doubtful. — 
15. Here the old reading (Heb. lo = not) has been sup- 
posed by Gesenius and many others to be a mistake for 
Heb. lu (=to him) ; which last, however 2 is said by Sieg- 
fried to be " a dogmatic correction which has crept in." — 
The Heb. for hope also means " wait " ; which is preferred 
by Cook, Davidson, Jennings et al., and adopted by the 
Eng. Rev. We follow the Am. Rev. (1901).— 16. This 
also . . . salvation (Heb.) — shall not come, etc. Be- 
cause he will not dare to come? — 17. Listening hear — 
hear diligently ( or continuously ) . See note above on verse 
10. — 19. Davidson pronounces this verse " a splendid cli- 
max to the declaration of his consciousness of innocence." 
— 20. Two only do not unto me (Heb.). The two are 
specified in the next verse; keeping God's heavy hand on 
him, and over-awing him by "terrible majesty"? — 21. 



180 THE BOOK OP JOB 

Thy hand . . . withdraw. So lit. and following the Heb. 
order of words. — 22. summon, etc. Legal phraseology? — 
25. terrify (Heb.) — stubble, etc. Again lit. and follow- 
ing the Heb. order. — 27. watchest, etc. Strict to mark 
deviations from rectitude? — mark (Heb. furrow) — roots 
=3 soles. In xxxvi, 30, " roots of the sea " == bottom of the 
sea. Gesenius interprets as follows: Around the roots of 
my feet hast thou digged; i. e., hast made a trench so that 
I can go no further, hast stopped my way. — 28. And he as 
rot, etc. Job for the moment looks at himself from others' 
standpoint? or is he thinking of himself as a type of the 
hyman race? — Siegfried (in his ed. 1893 ? p. 33) expresses 
his belief that verse 28 has got transposed, belonging next 
after xiv, 2. Test. 

Chapter XIV. 1. Are not these two lines elliptical and 
exclamatory? — born of woman. Woman was disparaged, 
as weak if not wicked. — Few days (Heb. short (of) days). 
— -3. dost thou open thine eyes, etc. To watch critically? 
" Is he not unfortunate enough by nature ? " ( Cheyne ) ? — 
4. The margin of the Rev. Vers, suggests for the first line 
here, " O that a clean thing could come out of an unclean ! 
Not one can." So prefer Ewald, Umbreit, Hirzel, Schlott- 
mann, Davidson, Dillmann, Marshall, Driver, Peake, Jen- 
nings. As if inherent depravity, " original sin," or an in- 
herited taint of universal corruption might well be a motive 
for God's forbearance. Conant dissents, remarking, " The 
optative sense is not well suited to the connection." We 
adhere to the Com. and Rev. Vers. — 6. Look off from = 
cease watching — enjoy. So in substance the marg. read, 
of the Rev. Vers. Most commentators concur. " The hire- 
ling's enjoyment in a day is in its close." Then the over- 
seer's watching ceases. Till then, 

81 Being observed, 
"When observation is not sympathy, 
Is just being tortured! " 

Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh. — 10. expireth (Heb.). As 
in iii, 11; xi, 20; xiii, 19, to expire is etymologically to 
"breathe out/' to "give up the ghost" — 11. dwindles 
diminish in volume. No deterioration in quality is implied. 
— floods stream; or, perhaps the overflow of a river. 
Some inland sea or lake, like the Sea of Aral? See Is. xix, 
5. — 12. no more the heavens, etc. I. e., never? — 13. He 
has no hope of relief in this life; but God's inexplicable 



EXPLANATOEY NOTES 181 

anger may be temporary: there may be another life. An- 
other life? 

" If my bark sink, 'tis to another seal " 

— Oh that (Heb. who'll give). See on xi, 5; xiii, 5. 
Sheol. See vii 2 9. — 14. If man die, may he live again 
( Heb. ) . May this be an interruption by one of the three 
friends? — war-service days (Heb.). See vii, 1. — dis- 
charge = release ? exchange ? — numberest — keepest care- 
ful scrutiny over ? — watch upon ( Heb. ) = the watch of a 
critic or detective? The expression "watch over" seems 
to savor of sympathy and care? — 17. Sealed, etc. To pre- 
serve the record? — 18. But, sooth. "A soliloquising 
pause." Lewis. — fadeth out (Heb.) — 19. Their overflow- 
ings. So the Rev. Vers. — 20. changest his countenance. 
See in Byron's Giaour the exquisite lines beginning, 



11 He who hath bent him o'er the dead 



» > 



also Tennyson's The Two Voices, sts. 18, 81. — 21. His sons, 
etc. The Two Voices, st. 86. — 22. Only = only note this: 
that. — hath pain . . . doth mourn. In Sheol ? "A dull 
pain in body and soul." Addis (1902). 

Chapter XV. 2. a wise man, etc. Is Eliphaz calling 
himself wise (Marshall, Jennings) ? or is he scornfully rec- 
ollecting what Job had said claiming wisdom in xii, 2, 3; 
xiii, 2, 5, etc. (Davidson, Driver)? — windy knowledge 
(Heb. knowledge of wind) = knowledge all wind? vox et 
praeterea nihil? — eastern blasts the hot and violent 
sirocco ("hot air") from the Arabian desert? — 4. More- 
over (Heb. aph, implying addition) — piety = reverence, 
godly fear? See note, iv, 6. — 5. thy iniquity thy mouth 
doth teach = thy iniquity prompts thy words (Vulg., De- 
litzsch, Dillmann, Davidson, Cook, Genung, Dillon, O. Cary, 
Driver, Jennings, Rev. Vers.) ? thy mouth proclaims thy 
iniquity (Noyes, Barnes, Raymond, Conant, Renan, Merx, 
Rawlinson, etc. ) ? Driver makes Job's utterances " at once 
the outcome and the proof of his guilt! " — 7. Thou the first 
man was born (Heb.). Therefore the wisest? — "Yes, yes: 
he's the first man : no wonder he's so wise ! " Indian irony, 
quoted by Davidson. — 8. Council, etc. See i, 6-12; ii, 1-7; 
Ps. lxxxix, 7. — 10. In days above thy father, great = 
older than thy father. — 11. And the word gently with 
thee. Gesenius gives ei And words gently (spoken) towards 



183 THE BOOK OF JOB 

thee. — 12. eyes flash. So the Am. Vers. ( 1901 ) . The Heb. 
word (razam) is said to be found here only. Shakespeare 
speaks of 

" The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling," 

Mid. Night's Bream, v, i, 12 (Sprague's ed.). Does Eli- 
phaz regard Job as partly if not wholly frenzied? — 14. 
clean, etc. See xiv, 1, 4. — ■ 15. saints, etc. See iv, 18; v, 1. 
-—16. How less (Heb.) = how much less (does He trust). 
Conant prefers how much more = how much more unclean. 
The Heb. lends itself to either interpretation. We follow 
the R. V. — corrupt (Heb. soured; polluted) — drinking 
wickedness (Heb.). As if thirsting for it. — 17. To thee 
. . . to me (Heb.) — that = that which. — 19; And not a 
stranger passed among them. Says Umbreit, " Eliphaz 
speaks like a genuine Arab, whose pride is in his tongue, 
his sword, and his pure blood." — 20. the years' number = 
years that can be numbered; L e., few years (Hitzig, De- 
litzsch, Dillon, Cook, Marshall) ? But perhaps Eliphaz is 
in a mood to exaggerate rather than minify the duration 
of the alleged distress. If so, many years. Verses 25-28 
expressive of cause? 29-33, of effect? — '25. strengtheneth 
himself (Heb.) = acts stoutly 2 insolently, or defiantly? — 
26. With neck, etc. (Heb.) =with neck proudly lifted up 
(Gesenius) ? like a wild bull (Cook) ? — thick bosses, etc. 
With Gesenius the commentators fancy here the image 
of the Roman military testudo: but may not "thick" sug- 
gest layers like those of "the sevenfold shield" of Ajax? 
— '27. fatness, etc. Indicative of animalism, sensuality? 
— »28. cities desolate. Desolate, because under the divine 
curse, and therefore doomed to remain uninhabited? See 
Deut. xiii, 16; Is. xiii, 19-22. — Since, etc. The Heb. asher 9 
like the Lat. quod, is often a conjunction to be rendered 
" because," " for," or " since." — 29. substance, etc. Text 
doubtful. On " substance " see i, 3. — wealth spread in 
the earth ( Heb. ) . " The word for produce or wealth," 
says Gesenius, " occurs but once, and the reading is doubt- 
ful."— 30. His mouth = God's mouth. See iv, 9.-32. 
Fulfilled it shall be = it shall be paid in full. — his time 
= his natural day of death. He shall die prematurely. — 
35. Mischief for others 2 calamity and disappointment for 
themselves. — bosom (Heb. womb.). 

Chapter XVI. 2. Many (Heb.) — Distressful = tor- 
menting (Cheyne) ? insupportable (Renan) ? wearisome 



EXPLANATOET NOTES 183 

r (Halsted) ? Com. and Rev. Vers, give "miserable." — 3. 
words of wind (Heb.). Job, Bildad, and Eliphaz seem 
fond of this metaphor; vi, 26; viii, 2; xv, 2. — 4. shake 
my head. Gesture of one pluming himself on having, as he 
supposed, detected hypocrisy, and seen it meet its deserts? 
Ps. xxii 2 7; Is. xxxvii, 22. — 5. As in vi, 14; xxix, 13, 15, 
25; xxxi, 19, 20, does Job recognize the duty of the fortu- 
nate toward the wretched? Davidson and Driver think 
" mouth " and " lips " are emphatic and spoken sarcas- 
tically. — 6. pain. The word " grief " of the accepted ver- 
sions was identical in sense with pain three hundred years 
ago. E. g., FalstarT asks, " Can honor take away the grief 
of a wound?" 2" Henri/ IV, v, i, 132. — what doth from me 
go — what of pain or trouble ceases to afflict me? in what 
respect am I relieved? — Thou, etc.; 9, He; 10, They. 
Note his apparent uncertainty as to the identity of his tor- 
mentor. — 8. shriveled. Marg. read. Rev. Vers. This word 
preserves the parallelism? — 9. anger teareth (Heb. nos- 
tril teareth). See note on iv, 9. — 10. smite my cheek. 
Following the Church Fathers, Genung pronounces this 
"Messianic language." See Lam. iii, 12, 13, 30; Micah 
v, 1; Matt, xxvi, 67; xxvii, 30, etc. — 14. Breach upon face 
of breach (Heb.) — 15. laid my brow (Heb. thrust my 
horn ! ) — Horn on the forehead as an ornamental symbol 
of strength, honor, or supremacy; in use still among the 
Druses of Mt. Lebanon? See Ps. lxxxix, 17, 24; xcii, 10; 
Michael Angelo's Moses. — • 16. flushed (Heb. made to boil 
= become red, inflamed). So Gesenius. Hot tears seem to 
scald. — lids = eyelids. — 'Shade of Death = deepest dark- 
ness. See iii, 5; x, 22. In Homer's Iliad grief or death 
veils, shadows, or darkens the eyes. — 17. Though in my 
hands . . . prayer (Heb.). Is. liii, 9. — 18 cover thou not 
my blood. The uncovered blood of an innocent murdered 
man was supposed to cry aloud to heaven for vengeance. 
See Gen. iv, 10. — no place (Heb.) =no lodgment till it 
reach Jehovah? James v, 4. — My friends my scorners 
(Heb.) — 21. And might one plead, etc. There is nothing 
in the form to indicate an optative like the " Oh that " of 
the Com. Vers. — Does the poet mean that the celestial 
Witness or Voucher might as an advocate plead in Job's 
behalf before the Supreme Judge ? "A foreshadowing of 
mediatorial work," says Marshall. Peake dissents. — 22. 
years of numbers numbered years. All the commenta- 
tors, except Hitzig, who changes years to "hours" (read- 



184 THE BOOK 01 JOB 

ing sha'oth hours, instead of sh'noth years), interpret this 
line as meaning, When a feio years are come. But he cer- 
tainly does not expect to live a few years. We therefore 
prefer to interpret verse 22 literally. — are come = are 
come and gone (Lewis) ? 

Chapter XVII. 1. spirit = principle of life (Davidson) ? 
— Graves =: cemetery ? — 2. mockeries ( Heb. ) — dwelleth 
= keeps dwelling, continually abides. — 3. Put now = de- 
posit a pledge ? — Who's he, etc. =: who's he will pledge 
himself for me (Gesenius)? — will strike, etc. = will 
" strike hands." Ratification by hand-shake was well-nigh 
universal, E. g., Prov. vi, 1; xvii, 18; Iliad, II, 341; Mneid, 
IV, 597. — 4. Exalt = give them the victory? — 5. For spoil 
betrayeth friends (Heb.) = informs against friends (or 
turns traitor to them) for a portion of the prey or booty? 
But the verse is doubtful; the utterance seems incoherent. 
Siegfried omits the first line, alleging that the text is 
mutilated. — shall waste away. See xi, 20. Davidson in- 
sists that there is no threat here. If none, should not 
" will " or "do" take the place of shall? — 6. byword, etc. 
Cheyne sees here reflected the circumstances of the poet's 
age, the Jewish nation a byword! Ps. xxii, 6; xliv, 14. — 
peoples', etc., xxx, 9; et seq. — spittle, etc. Metaphorical? 
Matt, xxvii, 30. — 9. Replying to Eliphaz in xv, 4-6? — 10. 
return. /. e., return to the attack on me? — 11. posses- 
sions of my heart (Heb.) =my heart's treasures (Conant) ? 
delights, dearest counsels (Gesenius)? — 12. They = the 
invisible tormentors (Lewis) ? my three friends? — put the 
night for day (Heb.). Various explanations are offered 
here. Conant translates " they put " as impersonal, read- 
ing, Night is joined to day. May it mean simply, For me 
a night of gloom and despair is ever present, when there 
should be sunshine and hope? The next line favors this. 
See Is. v, 20. — Light near the face of darkness (Heb.) 
relight soon to be merged in darkness (Gesenius)? The 
little cheer I get, quickly vanishes, and leaves me u dark, 
dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon ! " — Lo, wait I. So 
Gesenius. — 16. Siegfried's emendation — There they to- 
gether rest in dust — hope and corpse buried together — 
should perhaps be adopted. 

Chapter XVIII. 2. hunt ye for words. So the Am. 
Rev., 1901. — 3. the beast (Heb.) Tearing his soul in his 
anger (Heb.) =a man who teareth his soul in his anger 
(Davidson), Text doubtful. The Com. Vers, has "He 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 185 

teareth himself." The Rev. Vers, read, <f Thou that tear- 
est thyself is thine anger." Bildad recollects what Job said 
in xvi, 9? — 5. Again: etc. After all's said, law prevails; 
the wicked are doomed ? — 's put out, nor doth, etc. As 
Bildad is describing what habitually takes place, the pres- 
ent tense seems better than the future. — 6. Light dark- 
eneth, etc. " A thought borrowed from Job's own descrip- 
tion " in x, 22. Cook. — 11. chase him at his heels (Heb. 
scatter him to his feet!) — -12. ready for his halting 
(Heb.) = ready to pounce upon him if he halts in his 
flight? — 13. Bars of his skin (Heb.) = skeleton (Mar- 
shall) ? bones as supports of his skin (Barnes) ? — Death's 
First-born — Death's strongest child, deadliest of diseases 
(Davidson) ? calamity which does the work of death 
(Cook)? worm of corruption (Marshall) ? Here a cruel 
hint at Job's disease (Davidson, Driver, Jennings)? — 
limbs. The Heb. means originally something separate; 
and then parts, members. — 14. it shall march. I. e., his 
calamity shall bring in procession ? — King of Terrors. 
Par. Lost, n, 673, 697-8. — 17. street's face (Heb.) — 18. 
shall they thrust him (Heb.) =he will be driven. So we 
familiarly use " they say " for it is said — they. Minis- 
ters of vengeance? — 19. To him . . . his dwellings (Heb.) 

— 20. his day = the day of his downfall? Ps. xxxvii, 13. 

— laid hold on horror (Heb.) =took fright? horror took 
hold of them (Gesenius) ? 

Chapter. XIX. 2. soul (Heb. breath). — '3. ye stun me 
(Heb.) = bewilder? So Noyes, Conant, Gesenius, B. David- 
son. Interpretation doubtful. — 4. My error with myself 
remaineth = I am the chief sufferer? — 5. ye will make 
great = will magnify yourselves (Com. and Rev. Vers.) ? 
magnify my faults? exalt yourselves in comparison with 
me? — my reproach — your charge that my sufferings are 
a punishment ? my blamable attitude ? my impatience ? — 
7. Violence! (Margin, read.) — justice. Am. Rev. — 8. 
walled up. Am. Rev. — 10. like a tree, etc. " I am torn 
up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth." Edmund 
Burke, on the death of his son. — 11. anger (Heb. nostril). 
See iv, 9 ; Deut. xxxii, 22, where the Heb. for " nose " or 
" nostril " is rendered anger. " Anger shows itself in hard 
breathing." Gesenius, on Prov. xxii, 24. — 12 On come his 
troops together (Heb.) — way = a high bank in siege op- 
erations? — 13. all-estranged = become total strangers? 
wholly alienated? — 15. Sojourners in my house = visitors, 



186 THE BOOK OF JOB 

or others temporarily resident in his mansion? — 16. beg 
him with my mouth (Heb.) = entreat him with a loud 
voice (Gesenius) ? — 17. Strange === unpleasant? — loath- 
some. This marg. read, of the Rev. Vers, preserves the 
parallelism? Siegfried emends, and translates thus: 
" And I am become an abomination to," etc. — my mold = 
all my line? my blood relations? — 18. Kise I, etc. = if I 
try to rise, they jeer at me? — 19. Men of my council 
(Heb. =:my confidential friends). See 'Gen. xlix, 6. — 20. 
Cleaveth, etc. Ps. cii. 5. — skin of my teeth = next to 
nothing ( Gesenius, Driver, " proverbial " ) ? gums ( Noyes, 
Barnes, Poole, Schultens, Ewald, Dillmann, Jennings) ? lips 
(Luther, Cook) ? Siegfried omits the line. — 21. God hath 
touched, etc. See Whittier's Skipper Ireson's Ride. 
" Smitten me " is better, says P'eake. — 22. are not sated 
with my flesh — are not satisfied with devouring me ? 
" In oriental phrase to devour is used for to calumniate" 
says Davidson. So we speak of " backbiters," " biting slan- 
ders," etc. In Job's mind, may bodily torture, bodily de- 
struction, be included? — 23. in the "book (Heb.). Some 
recognized registry or book of records may be meant? — 
graven in the rock, etc. Letters were cut into the smooth 
surface of a rock, and melted lead was poured in? — 25, 
26, 27. In these seven remarkable lines we seek to trans- 
late literally; also to adhere to the order of the words in 
the Heb. text. — Know I my vindicator liveth. Millions 
cling lovingly to the precious word e( Redeemer " of the 
old versions, so prominent in the " burial service." But 
Vindicator is almost universally conceded to be a more 
accurate translation of the Heb. word (Goel) . Noyes 
(1827) remarks: "That there is no allusion to Christ m 
the term, nor to the resurrection to a life of happiness in 
the passage, has been the opinion of the most judicious 
and learned critics for these last three hundred years; such 
as Calvin, Mercier, Grotius, Le Clerc, Patrick, Warburton, 
Durell, Heath, Kennicott, Doederlein, Dathe, Eichhorn, 
Jahn, De Wette, and many others." — Of verses 25 and 26, 
Dr. R. W. Rogers, the oriental scholar of Drew Theo. Sem., 
wrote the editor as follows : " I would translate thus : 
' For I know that my redeemer liveth : in after time he 
shall stand upon the dust, and after this my skin hath 
been destroyed, yet without my flesh I shall see God. 5 " 
The editor's classmate at Yale, a fine Hebrew scholar, Dr. 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 187 

Jacob Cooper of Rutgers College, wrote him, " I would 
translate thus : ( I know my Redeemer : he lives ; and here- 
after He shall stand over (my) dust: Even after my skin, 
they (my enemies, the inimical powers which have brought 
me to my present awful state) — have shattered this (i. e., 
my body or dust) — yet from out of my flesh shall I see 
God.'" Siegfried, emending as usual, paraphrases (2d 
line, verse 25 ) thus : " At that time my surviving relative 
shall stand upon my grave as my avenger." — 26. from my 
flesh (Heb.). From may here signify away from, apart 
from, aside from; or it may designate the immediate stand- 
point (looking from my flesh as the point of view). We 
reproduce in our translation the ambiguity of the original. 
See note on " from " in Shakespeare^s The Tempest, i, ii, 
65; also Macbeth, in, i, 99 (Sprague's editions). — 27. for 
me (Heb.) =for myself (Com. Vers.) ? on my side (Rev. 
Vers. ) ? Young renders the line thus : " Whom I ... I 
see on my side." — a stranger (Heb.). Not as a stranger, 
but as a friend, shall I behold Him. — reins = heart ? — 
spent = wasted away? — within my bosom (Heb. be-cheq) . 
We render literally; but the language seems ejaculatory, 
broken utterances. — 28. found in me. So the Com. and 
Rev. Am. Vers. We adhere to the usual text. Siegfried 
emends to make it read " in him," instead of in me. 
Scholars are about equally divided on this point. — 29. 
wrath, ete.=. wrath bringeth? Have we here the broken 
speech of a fainting man ? — At the close of verse 27 the 
Mod. Read. Bib. suggests an abrupt pause, and inserts 
there as a " stage direction " the words, " He nearly faints.' 9 
Then it makes Job resume and speak verses 28, 29. Omit- 
ting verse 1 of Chap. XX, it inserts over verse 2 the heading 
ZOPHAR (interrupting). 

Chapter XX. 2. for this = on this account? He looks, 
forward to the reason stated in verse 3 ? — and for my 
haste within me (Heb.) —and because of my impetuous 
impulse? Driver, adopting the marg. read, of the Rev. 
Vers., "And by reason of (this) my haste is within me," 
suggests that " a word, meaning ' this/ has accidentally 
dropped out." — 3. my reproof, etc. (Heb.) — I have been 
hearing = I have repeatedly heard ? I have had to hear. 
Says Marshall, " The imperfect is frequentative." — breath 
( Heb. ) = inspiration ? animating spirit ? — answer me =3 
make answer for me ( Conant ) ? — Knowest thou this. 



?.? 



188 THE BOOK OF JOB 

The editors and the accepted versions interpolate the word 
" not " after Knoicest thou. Perhaps we should make the 
sentence an affirmative statement, Thou knowest. — from 
everlasting (Heb.) = from time immemorial? from past 
eternity? — 5. short (Heb. from near, in time or space). 
The triumphing (lit. joyous shout) is not from far.— wink 
(Heb.) =: moment. — 6. loftiness (Heb.) = towering height. 
— ■ 7. doth, present tense rather than future, for the reason 
given in note on xviii, 5. — 8. they find him not = he is 
not found. — 9. shall not again (Heb. shall not add). — 10. 
favor, etc. Interpretation doubtful? — 13. palate (Heb.) 
= " the hard palate " = the " roof of the mouth " ? — 14. 
gall of asps, etc. Pliny (Nat. Hist., xi, 75) suggests 
" poison in a viper's gall/ 5 Cook. — 17. rivers, Rivers (Heb.) . 
Siegfried and several other scholars omit the second 
" rivers " as a copyist's careless repetition, dittography. — 
18. swallow down. See verse 15 above. Cicero in his sav- 
age oration against Piso speaks of vomiting up (disgorg- 
ing) money swallowed down. — According to = in propor- 
tion to? — wealth of his exchange (Heb.) = wealth got 
by exchange, trade or commerce? His joy shall not be 
commensurate with his riches? His restitution shall equal 
his extortion or acquisition? See the Com. Vers, and marg. 
read. — -19. crushed (Heb.). The Heb. is a stronger word 
than the " oppressed " of most versions. — and builded not. 
Sense somewhat doubtful. Having taken violent posses- 
sion, he shall have no lengthened occupancy (Marshall) ? 
— -20. maw. Verses 20-24 justify the use of this word 
for the Heb. usually translated et belly " ? Milton's Sonnet 
to Cromwell; also Par. Lost, II, 847 (Sprague's ed.). 
Since . . . delights. So substantially the Rev. Vers. — 21. 
devouring (Heb.) — shall not last (Heb.) — 22. Every 
hand of Misery, etc. So Budde, Duhm, and Marshall; 
"misery being conceived" (of) "as a many-headed mon- 
ster." The "poor" of verse 19 are avenged? — 23. Be it 
at filling of his belly = the means or wherewith for its 
filling? the time when his stomach is about to be filled? 
Do the next two lines explain how? when? accompany- 
ing circumstance? — shall cast, etc. The sacred name 
(y'hovah) seems intentionally omitted here. The more 
impressive the reference? shown perhaps by an upward 
glance? — as his food. "God's wrath shall be his food 
and drink" (Cook)? — See Macbeth v 2 v, 13 (Sprague's 
ed.) — 25. the midst = the middle of his body? — light- 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 189 

ning=:the glittering weapon itself (Gesenius) ? In Ten- 
nyson's Passing of Arthur, the sword Excalibur 

"Made lightnings in the splendor of the moon." 

26. darkness laid np for his treasures. So all the trans- 
lators. But Siegfried, who is " nothing if not critical/' 
objects that " one cannot see how these could be injured 
by darkness " ! — darkness == calamity ? — A fire not blown 
= lightning? See Job i, 16; I Kings xviii, 38; Luke ix, 54. 
Chapter XXI. 2. Listening hear = listen attentively, or 
uninterruptedly? As in xiii, 10, 17, this Heb. idiom (ad- 
verbial use of participle) is often for emphasis. — In " conso- 
lations " does he allude to what Eliphaz had said in xv, 11 ? 
Are the " consolations " what they may get by listening to 
him ? — 4. Me — as for me ? — my complaint of man. So the 
Sept., Vulg., Merx, Ewald, Davidson, Renan, Dillmann, Budde, 
Marshall, Driver. The Com. and Rev. Vers, read, Is my 
complaint to man? Surely he does all along complain to 
man. Is not his complaint largely, if not chiefly, of God? 
Is it not because he dares to complain of God — his very 
audacity — that his " breath is short " when he thinks of 
it? The thought might well dismay him? — my breathe 
my spirit? myself? I? — be short = be troubled (Com. 
Vers. ) ? curt ? petulant ? impatient ? — 5. Turn toward me 
(Heb.) — hand lay upon mouth (Heb.) =keep your lips 
closed ? A hushing gesture ? — 6. For even when I call 
to mind = at the mere thought. — am appalled. " Afraid " 
and " troubled " are not strong enough to render perfectly 
the Heb. — wealth. (Heb. chayil=z good, riches, power.) 
The "mighty in power" savors of pleonasm? — 12. lift 
(Heb.) = lift the voice, sing (Rev. Vers., Gesenius, Lewis, 
Genung, Jennings) ? shout (Conant) ? raise themselves, be- 
come exhilarated (Barnes) ? leap wildly (Gilbert) ? lift 
their hands to, take (Com. Vers.)? — pipe (Heb. ugab, 
variously rendered pipe, flute, lute, organ). — 13. Sheol =: 
the underworld? Hades? See on vii, 9. — twinkling (Heb.) 
= wink, moment. Euthanasia? — Verses 14, 15. Note the 
threefold rejection in not knowing, not serving, and not 
praying. — 14. And unto. So Conant and the Am. Rev. 
The Eng. Rev. have " yet." The Com. Vers, has " there- 
fore." "Yet" seems to be implied. The conjunction (vav) 
is either conjunctive or disjunctive. None retain the 
"therefore" of the Com. Vers. — -15. what (in the 1st line) 
= wno (Noyes, Lewis) ? So the early Eng. writers often 



190 THE BOOK OP JOB 

use " what " for " who." E. g., see Shakespeare's As You 
Like It, ii, iv, 83 (Sprague's ed.). Better here the usual 
signification of " what " ? Thus Coverdale in his transla- 
tion of the Bible (A. D. 1535) quaintly renders thus: 
"What maner of felowe is the Almightie ? " — 16. Lo, not 
in their hand, etc. Siegfried regards verses 16, 17, 18, as 
" correcting interpolations conforming the speeches of Job 
to the spirit of the orthodox doctrine of retribution." The 
M. R. B. assigns verse 16 to Eliphaz, 17 and 18 to Job; 
the first half of 19 to Bildad, the last half of 19 and the 
whole of 20 and 21 to Job; verse 22 to Zophar. Other 
scholars, perhaps the majority, believe that in 16 and half 
of 19 Job is merely quoting the assertions of others in 
order to refute their views. May verses 16-31 be inter- 
preted as dialogue between the Friends and Job? — 17. 
How often, etc. Gesenius makes this interrogative 3 not 
exclamatory. This would make " How often " = not often, 
seldom? — doth distribute, etc. Why is the subject nom- 
inative not expressed? Is he afraid as in verse 6 above? 
See on xx, 23. — 18. Are they = How often are they = 
seldom are they? — 19, 20. Note the emphasis of the itali- 
cised words. — 21. cut off = ended? — 22. Seeing He = 
since He it is who=:and that too when He is the judge of? 
He emphatic? — those exalted = great officers of the uni- 
verse (Barnes) ? those in other worlds (Marshall) ? those 
high on earth (Raymond, Genung, 0. Cary) ? the presump- 
tuous or proud (Cook) ? heavenly beings (Jennings) ? See 
Ps. lxxxii, i, 6. — 23. One (Heb. this = this man). Anti- 
thetic to another in verse 25. — 24. udders. The Com. and 
Eng. Vers, have " breasts 9i : the Am. has " pails." So 
Peake and Jennings. The verse appears to suggest the ex- 
cellent condition of the flocks and herds, their udders full 
of milk, and their bodies large and strong. Does this idea 
help out the parallelism? — 25. breath (Heb.) = spirit 
or soul. See vi, 4; vii, 11, etc. — 26. At the close of verse 
26 the M. R. B. inserts (The Friends offer to interrupt) . — . 
27. devices. The Heb. (mezimmah, device) is commonly 
used in a bad sense, as here. — ye oppressively inflict 
on me. (Heb.) = which ye wrongfully imagine against 
me (Com. and Rev. Vers.) ? wherewith ye would wrong me 
(Am. Rev. Vers., 1901) ? — 28. prince's = tyrant's, as some- 
times in classic writers (Gesenius, Gilbert) ? — tent of the 
wicked's dwellings = the wicked lord's pavilion with dwell- 
ings clustered around it? — 29. passers by the way (Heb.) 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 191 

The Am. Rev. read " wayfaring men/' which commonly im- 
plies pedestrians. — • tokens = evidences (Am. Rev.) ? pledges, 
assurances (Marshall) ? signal examples adduced by trav- 
elers of the impunity of the wicked (Driver) ? — 30. wraths 
(Heb. wraths, outbursts or excesses of wrath). — spared 
. . o guided forth, etc. = saved . . . guided forth to safety? 
" Deviations/ 5 say the late commentators, " imperatively 
demanded by the context." But the Am. Rev. seem in 
doubt. If for to of the Com. and R. V. we substitute in 
in each line of 30, the sense will be tolerably expressed. 
— 31. tell his way, etc. = sharply reprove him? — requite 
him for his doings == adequately punish his deeds. — 32. 
keepeth. watch, etc. = is constantly watching ( Ewald, 
Renan, Hirzel, Cook, Driver, etc.) ? Dathe, Rosenmuller, 
Eichhorn, De Wette, Noyes and some others read " And still 
survives upon his tomb." Marshall has " Watch is kept, 
i. e., relays of watchmen guard." In Browning's The Lost 
Leader we read, 

" Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, 

Burns, Shelley were with us, — they watch from their graves! " 

" Reference to the ef^gy of the dead man," says Peake. So 
Renan. — But the meaning is doubtful : the Heb. appears to 
be lit. and shall keep ivatch over the mound. — 33. Clods, 
etc, Euripides' Alcestis, 463. — after him will all men 
draw = innumerable successors and imitators will follow 
his example (Davidson, Raymond, Genung, Marshall) ? his 
example will be widely followed (Driver) ? multitudes will 
go to see his tomb (Barnes) ? the succeeding generations 
of men shall follow to the same house appointed for all 
living (Scott, Noyes) ? all come in lengthened train 
(Lewis) ? one after another all will follow in funeral pro- 
cession (Jennings)? — 34. comfort. The Heb. (nacham) 
properly signifies to forcibly draw breath over, to sigh over; 
thence to sympathize with, to comfort. — with breath — 
with mere breath, vanity. In xxvii, 12, the Heb. reads lit., 
" Why this breath do ye breathe out ? = Why are ye alto- 
gether vain; See Macbeth v, iii, 27 (Sprague's ed.). 

Chapter XXII. 5-9. Eliphaz invents facts to bolster up 
his theory? — 4. fear = pious fear of God, piety (Rosen- 
muller, Hitzig, Delitzsch, Dillmann, Merx, Budde, Davidson, 
Conant, Marshall, Driver, Peake 2 Jennings, Rev. Vers.) ? 
reverent respect for thee (substantially the Vulg., Sept., 
Hahn, Hirzel, Renan, Com. Vers.)? — Man-of-Arm (Heb.) 



192 THE BOOK OP JOB 

Arm, symbol of might. See Is. li, 9; liii, 1; Eccod. xv, 16. — 
to him the land (Heb.) — Lifted-up-of-Face (Heb.). See 
Ps. cxxxi, 1; Is. ii, 11; Shakes. Julius Ccesar, n, i, 23, 26, 
118 (Sprague's ed.).- — 9. widows . . . orphans, etc. See 
Exod. xxii, 22; Deut. x, 18. — 10. dismayeth. " Troubleth " 
of the Com. and Rev. Vers, is too feeble a word? — 11. see 
thou canst not (Heb.) — multitude of waters (Heb.). 
Shakespeare has " multitudinous seas " in Macbeth, n, ii, 62 
(Sprague's ed.) — 12. Head of the stars (Heb.) = highest 
of stars ? — 14. Thick clouds, etc. See Ps. xcvii, 2. 

" How oft amidst 
Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire 
Choose to reside, His glory unobscured, 
And with the majesty of darkness round 
Covers His throne ! ' ' 

Par. Lost., n, 263-267 (Sprague's ed.). 

— vault. So Conant and Am. Rev. The Douay has " about 
the poles." The Eng. Rev. reads, " in the circuit." Others 
would say " circle" or "arch." — 15. time long past = 
forgotten antiquity ? the antediluvian age ? — men unright- 
eous trod. The usual versions read " have trodden," which 
would imply the present existence of those unrighteous an- 
cients. Genung and Gilbert rightly omit the " have." — 16. 
Who. /. e., the antediluvians? — and time not (Heb.) =s 
out of time =: before their time, prematurely, untimely 
(Gesenius, Jennings) ? See xv, 32. So the versions gen- 
erally; but Barnes may be right in rendering the phrase 
" suddenly." — A flood was poured out, their foundation 
(Heb.). For contrast see Ps. xxiv, 2. The marg. read. 
Com. Vers, is, " a flood was poured upon," etc. The Rev. 
Vers, have " whose foundation was poured out as a stream." 
The Com. Vers, gives " whose foundation was overflown 
with a flood." Conant renders it " their foundation was 
poured away in a flood." But there is no " upon," " as," 
"with," nor "in," in the orig. text. — 17. Depart, etc. See 
xxi, 14. — to them = to people in general? The Rev. Vers, 
change to them to " for us." So Jennings. The old and 
perhaps the most frequent interpretation used to be based 
upon the understanding that the question was asked, not 
by the " unrighteous men " of long ago, but by Job him- 
self. So Cook. The Com. Vers, reads " for them " ; which 
Davidson changes to " unto them." — 18. But far, etc. 
Echo of xxi, 16? — 20. Surely, etc. Language of the 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 193 

" innocent " ? — remnant — abundance, affluence, wealth 

(Driver)? — 21. Acquaint thee with := accustom thyself 

to (Driver, who says the phrase is obsolete in this sense) ? 

— at peace = at peace with Him (Cook)? at peace with 
thyself in safety (Jennings)? — 24. ore (Heb.) — lay in 
the dust (Heb. on the dust) = fling it away to the dust 
(Gesenius) ? — Ophir=: (by metonymy) gold of Ophir 
(Gesenius) ? Situated in Arabia? Africa? India? America? 
Cuba (as Columbus fancied) ? — stones of streams = rocks 
of the wadys (Driver, Jennings)? — 25. precious silver 

(Heb. silver of strength = " sterling " silver) ? — The text 
word for " ore," rendered in the R. V., verses 24, 25, 
" treasure," and in the marg. read., Com. Vers., " gold," is 
claimed to be Arabic and to mean " gold and silver ore." — 
26. delight in the Almighty ( Heb. ) . Recollected in xxvii, 
10? — lift thy face, etc., x, 15; xi, 15. — 27. pay thy vows. 
Sacrifices or thank-offerings were vowed; to be fulfilled if 
the prayers were granted? — 29. When they're cast down 
=:when persons are cast down? when thy ways are made 
low? when eyes are cast down? Text and sense doubtful. 

— the lowly-eyed =: him of downcast eyes ? the humble ? 
Job himself (Davidson)? the meek-eyed (Conant) ? — 30. 
sin-stained (Heb. not clean). Text disputed. — pureness. 
Parallelism with sin-stained. For the doctrine in this line, 
see, post, xlii, 8 ; Gen. xviii, 23-32. 

Chapter XXIII. 2. "bitter, etc. Instead of bitter the 
marg. read., Rev. Vers., has " (accounted) rebellion." — 
hand upon me (Heb.). This is often rendered "my hand" 
or " my stroke." Gesenius explains it as the hand of the 
Lord smiting or pressing hard. See xiii, 21; Ps. xxxii, 4. 
~ 3-7. Note the frequent imagery from tribunals. — 3. Oh 
that (Heb. Who'll give!). See vi, 8; xix, 23, etc. — 4. set, 
etc. =s set the case in order with legal formality. — 6. con- 
tend; i. e., in court. — He, etc. Pronoun emphatic. — ■ 
7. might . . . reason, etc. Job is sure he can establish his 
innocence, if he can once have a fair hearing, face to face 
with his accuser. — 8. but He is — ■ not. The versions sup- 
ply the word " there," and make it emphatic ! — 8,9. for- 
ward . . . back . . . left . . . rights east . . west . . . 
north . . . south) Vulg., Gesenius, Barnes, Lewis, Conant, 
Raymond, Gilbert, 0. Gary, et al.) ? In locating the cardi- 
nal points, the Hebrews, like the ancient Irish, the Mongols, 
Hindoos, the Zunis, etc., faced the east. We adhere to the 
Com. and Rev. Vers. — 10. the way with me (Heb.) =my 



194 THE BOOK OF JOB 

conduct, my manner of life (Marshall) ? ma conscience 
(Renan) ? my accustomed way (Ewald, Dillmann, Cook) ? 
See Ps. cxxxix, 24. — Trieth He me ( Heb. ) = if He tries 
me. — ■ 11. My foot hath, held fast, etc. Marshall, appar- 
ently forgetting that this is poetry, remarks, suggesting 
prehensile toes, " The oriental foot has more power of clasp- 
ing than ours! " "Are we opossums?" asks Carlyle. — ■ 12. 
I have treasured in my bosom. So the Sept., the Vulgate, 
Peake, and Jennings. This is better than appointed por- 
tion =3 necessary food ( Com. and Rev. Vers. ) ? Text doubt- 
ful. Says Davidson, " Any reference to food seems out of 
place." But see Deut. viii, 3; Prov. xxx, 8; Matt* iv, 4. 
In the marg. read., Com. and Rev. Vers., Prov. xxx, 8, 
" food convenient for me," and " my needful food," are 
given as " food of my allowance " and " bread of my por- 
tion." — 13. He — in one = in one mind = He is change- 
less. — And His soul willeth = what His aspiration (Heb. 
His breath), His earnest desire, is. — And He performeth 
= that He doeth also = besides desiring earnestly, He 
actually performs. — 14. many such, etc. =: many similar 
moral anomalies (Driver) ? See x, 13 et. seq. — 15. I mark 
= 1 attend to the matter. — 16. faint (Heb. soft). — terri- 
fieth. A stronger word than " troubleth " of the Com. and 
Rev. Eng. Vers, is needed. So " troubled " is too feeble in 
verse 15. — 17. We adopt in substance the marg. read, of 
the Rev. Vers. — It is not so much the dark calamities that 
dismay him, but God's seeming injustice. So in substance 
Ewald, Delitzsch, Dillmann, Zockler, and Lewis. But — 
interpretation is difficult. Our prehistoric Browning is ob- 
scure from condensation and ellipsis? 

Chapter XXIV. 1. times = times of assize? sessions of 
court (Davidson, Peake et al.) ? times of retribution 
(Driver, Jennings et al.) determinate seasons for the chas- 
tisement of offenders (Cook)? — laid up. So the Rev. 
Vers. — laid up = appointed, for sitting in judgment for 
trial (Davidson) ? reserved for the wicked (Driver, Mar- 
shall) ? — His days = days in which He manifests himself 
in righteousness (Cook)? in judgment (Driver)? — 2-17. 
Marshall distributes these verses under five heads; viz., 
(a) Injustice of invaders; (b) Miseries of aborigines 
wrongfully dispossessed; (c) Cruelty and slavery; (d) 
Cruelty in the city; (e) Nefarious secret crimes. Lewis 
calls attention to the same passage. " Job," he says, 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 195 



a 



abruptly specifies the disorders God permits — items 
strangely mixed, as though the passionateness of the speaker 
carried him out of all method. No effort of Dickens or 
Hugo could rival this picture." — 2. Remove the landmarks! 
Preliminary to seizure of flocks and pastures? Are they 
invaders, as Marshall supposes, or "cruel barons"? cruel 
oppressors, who seize and feed as if they were their own in 
defiance of law and public opinion (Peake) ? See Deut. 
xxvii, 17. — '4. together hide. The Am. Rev. have "all 
hide." We follow the Com. and Eng. Rev. Vers. — 5. 
Eagerly seeking prey (Heb.). The Com. Vers, has " ris- 
uig betimes for prey," which is perhaps less exact. The 
Rev. Vers, have " seeking diligently." Cook takes the de- 
scription to be of robber hordes, whose " work " is plunder- 
ing. — wilderness food = wilderness yieldeth food (Com. 
and Rev. Vers.)? wilderness is food (Cook)? — 9. Tear 
orphan, etc. = seize the infant of the dead debtor, snatching 
it from the widow's breast. See vi, 27. — on the poor = 
what's on the poor; i. e., clothing (Gesenius, marg. read. 
R. V.) ? get power over the poor by taking pledges of them 
(Driver) ? — 10. 11, 12, Sore want amid plenty. — 12. city 
of men (Heb.) = populous city. Many ancient cities were 
deserted. — folly ( Heb. unsavoriness ) . — attribute folly = 
indicate that such things are morally distasteful? — 13. 
Siegfried regards the passage, verses 13-24, as one of several 
" interpolations introduced to make Job's speeches conform 
to the orthodox doctrine of retribution." — 14. toward the 
light (Heb. at, for or toward the light) = before daybreak, 
when other men are yet sleeping ( Cook ) ? " While it is 
still partially dark, he waylays the solitary traveler." 
Davidson. — 15. gloaming = evening twilight deepening into 
night. " Tioilight gives an incorrect impression." Cook. — 
16. They dig through . . . light. We aim at a lit. trans- 
lation. — Seal up themselves, etc. (Heb.) =:the burglars 
shut up themselves, keep within doors. So the revisers and 
nearly all recent editors. But " doctors disagree." — 17. 
If recognize! etc. The Heb. which we follow closely is very 
elliptical, and variously construed; but the Com. Vers, 
gives a good meaning; viz., " If one know them (*. e., recog- 
nize the burglars), the criminals are in the terrors of the 
Shade of Death," i. e., of deepest darkness. See iii, 5. — 18. 
Swift he upon the water's face (Heb.) =he is like a waif 
or spray on the surface of the water, swept rapidly away, 



196 THE BOOK OF JOB 

and disappearing in a moment (Davidson) ? See xx, 28; 
Rosea, x, 7. Burns's lines in Tarn O'Shanter will be re- 
called — 

" Or like the snow-falls in the river, 
A moment white, then gone forever 1 " 

— 18, 19, 20, 21. " Here the broad and somewhat exagger- 
ated colors indicate either . . . the work of a popular hand, 
or a parody after the popular manner by Job himself." 
Davidson. Marshall suggests that these verses are an in- 
terruption by Bildad, constituting his third address, and 
that Chap. XXV is Zophar's third. Marshall further re- 
marks as follows: "Verses 13-17 are obelized as of doubt- 
ful originality in several MSS. Hatch advocates their 
omission. Merx deems vers. 5-24 as a later insertion. 
Siegfried considers vers. 13-24 to be foreign matter. Most 
scholars recognize that vers. 18-21 cannot in this connection 
be the sentiments of Job. The Versions ( Sept., Syr., Vulg. ) 
take the words optatively, as forming an imprecatory 
prayer. Rev. Marg. inserts the words: Ye say that (he is 
swift), etc. Ewald considers vers. 18-21 a poem which Job 
quotes to ridicule it. Dr. Moulton puts the words in in- 
verted commas." — 18. Curst . . , portion . . . vineyards' 
way, etc. The alleged doom of the sinner? See xviii, 15, 
16. — -19. take quick away (Heb.) — Sheol, have sinned 

(Heb. ) = so Sheol snatches away great sinners? — 20. for- 
getteth, etc. For the reason given in note on xviii, 5, the 
present tense in these verses is better than the future ? — - 
21. Ill treateth, etc, See Matt, xxiii, 14. — barren . . . 
widow. The law was especially tender toward these. — 22. 
continueth the powerful (Heb.) =: prolongs the life of 

the mighty? preserves the oppressor? So, substantially 
the recent versions. The omitted subject is supposed to be 
the Divine Being; but Conant dissents. — Though life they 
trust not (Heb.) = though they have no assurance that 
they shall live? though sick in bed and despairing of life 

(Davidson, Marshall, Driver, etc.)? — 23. to them (Heb. 
to him. " Collective singular for the plu.," say the 
scholars). — 24. they're gathered in. /. e., at the harvest 
of death? — as the tops of ears of corn, etc. =: they die 
not prematurely, but only in ripe old age? 

Chapter XXV. 2-6. This speech of Bildad, as it stands 
in the Common Version, seems a mere fragment. Many 
editors infer that " the controversy has exhausted itself." 



EXPLANATOBY NOTES 197 

Gratz, Cheyne, Moulton, Marshall, and some others, sus- 
pect that a transposition has • taken place in the received 
texts. They would lengthen this reputed speech by adding 
to it verses 5 to 14 inclusive, Chap. XXVI. Then, since 
the old order leaves the third cycle of speeches incomplete 
(Zophar apparently failing to appear for his expected 
third discourse ) , they would make a new arrangement and 
restore symmetry by assigning to him as his third speech 
the passage beginning with verse 7, Chap. XXVII, and ex- 
tending thence through the remainder of XXVII and includ- 
ing all of XXVIII. In further support of this proposed 
cLange, they urge that, according to the old order, Job is 
made to antagonize both his former and his subsequent 
attitude. Peake is quite sure that he finds Bildad's 2d 
speech in XXV, 2, 3; XXVI, 5-14. 

XXV. 2. peace in His high, regions = peace in the 
heavens? Have we here, as Davidson thinks possible, and 
Driver probable, an allusion to some widespread legend of 
a "war in heaven"? See ix, 13; 2 Peter, ii, 4; Jude i, 6; 
Bevel, xii, 7-9; Is. xxiv, 21. — 3. battalions = all the phys- 
ical and spiritual powers of the universe (Cook) ? the phe- 
nomena of the heavens by night, as in Is. xl, 26 (Davidson) ? 
See Dan. iv, 35. — numbers enumeration? numerical 
limit ? — His light = His effulgence, dimly reflected in the 
"children of light" (Cook) ? See / John i, 5; Rev. xxi, 
23, 24; Par. Lost, in, 1-7. — 4. just with God = righteous 
in God's estimation ? righteous in God's presence ? — born 
of woman (Heb. ), etc. Doctrine of inherent depravity? 
Echo of Eliphaz, iv, 17? See xiv, 1, 4; xv, 14-16. — 5. even 
to the moon (Heb.), etc. The Vulg. has Ecce, luna etiam 
non splendet, lo, even the moon shines not! The idea ap- 
pears to be that the immaculate purity of the Most High 
transcends all beneath and beyond the moon and stars. — 
6. corruption's worm, etc. Davidson remarks : " The Heb. 
has here two words for worm; the one the worm of decay 
and corruption (as in vii, 5; xvii, 14; xxi, 26; xxiv, 20; 
Exod. xvi, 24; Is. xiv, 11) ; the other, in the second clause, 
used to express the utmost abasement and abjectness (as in 
Is. xli, 14, ' Fear not, thou worm, Jacob ' ; Ps. xxii, 6, 
6 But I am a worm, and no man.' ) — We have only one 
word in English." The 1st, Heb. rimmah; 2d, Heb. toleah. 

With verse 6 the Com. Vers makes Bildad's speech end. 
Then the XXVIth chapter begins with Job's bitterly ironical 
questioning, 



198 THE BOOK OP JOB 

How hast thou helped the powerless! 
Hast saved the strengthless arm! 
How counseled the unwise, etc. 

Next follows the whole of XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, 

XXXI; all admittedly Job's, with the possible exception of 
XXVIII; which sounds like the chant of a Greek Chorus 
extolling 1 the wonderful skill and energy of man, but in- 
sisting that the all-embracing underlying Wisdom et is a 
thing possible to God alone; and man does not attain to it; 
the fear of the Lord is a substitute ordained for man in- 
stead of it; for, as the absolute Wisdom belongs to the 
Creator, so the fear of the Lord is the wisdom that befits 
the creature." Davidson, p. 201. 

Chap. XXVI. 1, 2, 3, 4. Note the tone of sarcasm. — 4. 
declaimed. This is Lewis's happy substitute for the color- 
less phrase " uttered words," of the usual versions. — For 
to whom, Gesenius, Conant, Duhm, Marshall, and Driver 
would substitute " oy whom"; Jennings, tcith whom; i. e., 
by whose help. We adhere to the Com. and Rev. Vers. — 5. 
the giant Shades (Heb. Rephaim). For this expression the 
Sept. gives gigantes; the Vulg. concurs; the Chaldee and 
the Syriac " mighty ones, or giants." Certain " Rephaim " 
lived east of the Dead Sea, and were reputed giants. See 
Deut. ii, 10, 11, 20, 21; iii, 11; 2 Sam, xxi, 16, 18, 20, 21, 
22. For a glance at them in Sheol, see Is. xiv, 9, where the 
word " Rephaim " is used to designate members of the con- 
clave of mighty dead. The Douay Vers, and Luther give 
" giants " ; the Rev. Vers., " the Shades," or " they that are 
deceased." — beneath, etc. = under the sea and its fishes 
and monsters. — 6. Sheol. See vii, 9. — Abaddon (Heb. = 
destruction. The world of the lost; the "abyss"; Tar- 
tarus ? See Classical and Bible Dictionaries. — 7. on noth- 
ing =. from nothing ? over nothing ( Peake ) ? Says Driver, 
" The text means ' suspended from, 3 the margin means 
' suspended over ' : either rend, may be right." — " The earth 
is supported (sic) from above." Peake. — 9. inclosing 
(Heb.) = enshrouding? — 10. circle's "bound (Heb.) = ho- 
rizon? See Prov. viii, 27, Rev. Vers. — unto the limit of 
light with darkness (Heb.) =the boundary line, etc. — 11. 
pillars of heaven — lofty mountains on which the heavens 
seem to rest (Davidson)? — are shaken (Heb.). "In a 
thunderstorm these mountains quake at Jehovah's ' rebuke,' 
i. e., at the crashing peals." Driver. — 12. Yon sea (Heb. 
that sea). — maketh tremble JjBeb.) =maketh afraid 



EXPLANATOBY NOTES 199 

(Gesenius) ? quelleth (Conant, Davidson) ? divideth (Com 1 . 
Vers.) ? stirreth up (Noyes, Rev. Vers.) ? still eth (marg. 
read. Rev. Vers.)? — 13. breath, etc. The wind, God's 
"breath," clears away the clouds. — brightness (Heb.). 
The root means to rub, polish, or burnish. — Serpent swift. 
So the Rev. Vers. " The latter clause," says Cook, " should 
be rendered * hath wounded the flying dragon/ " " He slew 
the apostate dragon " ( Sept., quoted approvingly by Bp. 
Wordsworth). — Serpent — a constellation (Renan) ? iden- 
tical with leviathan in iii, 8 ( Peake ) ? " personification of 
darkness and evil"? See iii, 8. — 14. And what a whisper 
word, etc. (Heb.) =:yet how slight a whisper's heard con- 
cerning Him ! " What we hear of Him is but a faint whis- 
per." Davidson. How grand and terrible is that mere 
whisper ! 

Chapter XXVII. 1. discourse. The Com. Vers, has 
"parable"; but the word in the Heb. (mashal, similitude) 
signifies not what we call a parable, but often a discourse 
abounding in sententious sayings, apothegms, or proverbs; 
any discourse in which " the results of discursive thought 
are concisely or figuratively expressed." — 2. Liveth God! 
(Heb.) =By the living God! or, As surely as God liveth! 
This was a common Heb. oath. — God. The Heb. is EL, 
much used in poetry. — the Almighty. The Heb. here is 
SHADDAI. Both words appear to signify etymologically 
the Mighty. — ■ my right — my right to a prompt and fair 
judicial hearing? — soul (Heb. breath). As in iii, 20; vi, 
7; vii, 11; xii, 10, etc., the usual Heb. words for breath 
(nephesh and ruach) are metaphorically used for spirit or 
soul, sometimes life. — 3. My life yet whole within me. 
So the Am. Rev. " Though worn by disease, he still has 
life and energy sufficient to make protestation." — breath 
. . . nostrils. See Gen. ii, 7. — 4. muttereth. " The Heb. 
word implies a low sound, murmuring or muttering." 
Lewis. — 5. expire (Heb. breathe out). — Far be it from me 
(Heb. be it profane to me). This phraseology is preferred 
by the Am. Rev. — 6. Of days of mine . . . reproacheth. 
not (Heb.) =in all my days there has been nothing for 
which my conscience reproaches me.? Luther renders 
quaintly, " My conscience bites me not in respect of my 
whole life." — 8. though he get him gain (Heb.). Sub- 
stantially the Com. Vers., adopted by the Am. Rev., and 
preferred by Rosenmuller, Merx, Conant, Cook, 0. Cary, and 
Marshall. But Noyes (in substance), Ewald, Delitzsch, 



200 THE BOOK OP JOB 

Dillmann, Davidson, Genung, Gilbert, Driver, Jennings, and 
the Eng. Rev., would read " When God doth cut him off." — ■ 
doth draw away his breath (Heb.). Siegfried, rendering 
thus : " When God draws his soul out of his body," terms 
it " a rather comical conception." But is not the imagery 
merely intended to express a reversal of the process by 
which " man became a living soul " ? Literal prose inter- 
pretation of poetry is sometimes " too comical for any- 
thing " ! 

Special attention is called at this point to the arrange- 
ment of speeches. As suggested at the beginning of the 
notes on Chap. XXV, some distinguished scholars suspect 
that serious blunders as to the succession have crept into 
the received text. 

Beginning with " Let mine enemy be as the wicked," 
Moulton assigns to Zophar all that follows to the end of 
Chap. XXVII, and the whole of Chap. XXVIII. Froude 
(in his Short Studies on Great Subjects, ed. of 1872, p. 255) 
remarks : " Eliphaz and Bildad have each spoken a third 
time: the symmetry of the general form requires that 
Zophar should speak; and the suggestion was first made 
by Dr. Kennicott (1776) that he did speak, and that verses 
11 to 23 (in the Common Version) belong to him." Eich- 
horn (1752-1827) takes them to be a summary by Job of 
his adversaries' opinions. E'wald believes that Job is reced- 
ing from his former views. Cheyne " conjectures that 
verses 8-23 belong to the third speech of Zophar." Mar- 
shall and Siegfried think that verses 5-11 of XXVI ought 
to follow next after XXV, 5. See (in the "Cambridge 
Bible for Schools and Colleges) Dr. A. B. Davidson's Intro- 
duction (p. xxxv et seq.) and his text and notes (pp. 189, 
190). 

If we regard Job as all the while of sound mind, the 
difficulties arising from his frenzied utterances, inconsist- 
encies, and abrupt incoherences appear insoluble. It en- 
hances the pathos of the situation to conjecture that, under 
the stress of terrible afflictions, his brain may have become 
at times disordered. 

Chap. XXVII. 10. delight, etc. See xxii, 26.— 11. 
What's with the Almighty (Heb.) =the plan or purpose 
of the Almighty ? — 12. breath = empty breath, vanity. 
See Macbeth, v, iii, 27 (Sprague's ed.) ; Job xxi, 34. — 13. 
this . . . the portion, etc. See xx, 29. — 14. If his sons 
multiply, for sword (Heb.). The more children, the more 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 201 

bereavement! — 5. widows wail. Ps. lxxviii, 64. — 16. dust 
. . o clay ( Heb. ) . Symbols of plenty ; also of frailty ? See 
Zech. ix, 3; Job. iv, 19; xiii, 12; xxxiii, 6. — 16, 17. Neat 
introverted parallelism? — 18. as the moth. So the Com. 
and Rev. Vers. Siegfried objects that moths do not build 
houses! See viii, 14, where the Heb. has " spider's house." 
" Some ancient versions here have i as the spider/ " — 18. 
booth — a slightly built movable hut, a watchman's shanty. 
— 19. is not gathered = is not " gathered to his fathers " 
for decent burial. Instead of " but is not gathered/' some 
ancient versions prefer a text rendered " but not again " ; 
i. e., but he shall do so no more = but he does not do it 
again (because, meantime, the catastrophe has come). So 
marg. read. Eng. Rev. Vers., the Sept., Delitzsch, Dill- 
mann, Ewald, Renan, Siegfried, Driver ? etc. Cook would 
give us "it (i. e., his wealth) shall not be gathered." — 
his eyes ... he is — not (Heb.) =he wakes only to see his 
murderers (Cook, Davidson) ? in the twinkling of an eye 
he is no more (Barnes) ? his eyes are open in the stare of 
death? See 2 Kings, xix, 35. — 20. like waters, etc. See 
xxn, 11; Nahum i, 8; Ps. xviii, 16; Matt, vii, 27. — 21. 
East Wind, etc. Particularly violent, often scorching, in 
western Asia. — snatcheth, etc. Like Homer's Harpies 
(lit. snatchers I ) , personified storm winds. — sweepeth. So 
all the Rev. Vers. — 22. hurleth == God hurleth ? An up- 
ward glance, more expressive than speech, may indicate 
who? — Shall clap their hands, etc. I. e., in mockery and 
malice? "Shall" is jussive here, expressive of will? See 
xxxiv, 37; Lam. ii 2 15. May a gesture show that men in 
general are meant? 

Chapter XXVIII. This noble chapter is a standing puz- 
zle to all who seek a logical context. It is a magnificent 
poem complete in itself; but it is not easy to see how it 
explains anything that has gone before it, or throws light 
upon what follows. It reads like a sublime soliloquy, 
spoken by Job in a lucid interval. Incredible anguish of 
body and soul had preceded it, darkest and bitterest pessi- 
mism with luminous flashes interspersed of glad and glo- 
rious faith; and now to this poor exhausted frame an hour 
of peaceful rest has come. For a little while, clear reason 
resumes her sway. In the respite, before the agony returns 
and the death struggle begins, he announces to bystanders 
and to the world the life-lesson taught by his observation, 
his reasoning, and his meditations? 



202 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Verse 1. For (Heb. hi) == because. Unable to find any 
logical sequence calling for the usual meaning of the word, 
the translators of the Com. and Rev. Vers, have ventured 
either to omit it altogether or to render it " surely." Is 
it a gossamer marking a transition? Having like CEdipus 
" travelled many paths in wanderings of thought/ 5 he now 
and then emerges suddenly from this hell on earth as if 
waking from a hideous dream. Lack of logical sequence 
enhances the pathos? 

1 ' Hours there be of inmost calm, 
Broken but by grateful psalm: 
And at times his worn feet press 
Spaces of cool quietness, 
Lilied whiteness shone upon 
Not by light of moon or sun." 

— Whittier. 

— verily. So we venture to translate the Hebrew (yesh), 
a substantive used adverbially, reminding us of Aristotle's 
Greek to einai, the essential nature, the inward reality, the 
" is-ness " ! It is emphatic. — vein (Heb. place of going 
forth, source; Lat. exitus, Germ, quelle). — gold they fine 
= gold which they refine. — 2. dust (Heb.) = loose earth? 
stone outpoureth (Heb.) = stone ore is fused into (Co- 
nant) ? "Brass" in the Old Testament includes copper, 
bronze (alloy of copper and tin), and our brass (alloy of 
copper and zinc) ? — Setteth = the miner sets. Such omis- 
sion of the subject reminds of Browning; e. g., in Caliban 
Upon Setebos. — Shade of Death ~ deepest darkness. See 
iii, 5; xxiv, 17. — 4. From with sojourners (Heb.) = away 
from the vicinity of sojourners. Doubtful phraseology. — 
breaketh-through a shaft (Heb.) = sinks a shaft or pit by 
breaking through the ground (Gesenius) ? Siegfried omits 
the 2d line of the Heb. text in this verse as " entirely with- 
out sense." Perhaps we may paraphrase thus: Beneath 
the miners' huts, down and away, forgotten by those who 
tread above, they work suspended. — 5. by fire, etc. Pliny 
(A. D. 23-79) describes processes of breaking rocks by fire 
(in Eistoria Naturalis, xxxin, iv, sec. 21). — 7. That path 
= the miner's path. — descried. The Heb. (shazaph) is 
said to be stronger than the Eng. (i seen." Note on verse 
21, post. — -8. sons of pride (Heb.) enlarge ravenous beasts? 
"Most probably reptiles" (Jennings, following Driver, cit- 
ing Genesis iii) ? See xli, 34. — thereby. Gesenius and 
Cheyne prefer to use " over it." — 10. passages. The exact 






EXPLANATORY NOTES 203 

meaning of the Heb. is doubtful; but "passages" makes a 
better parallelism than "rivers" or "channels." — 11. 
weeping (Heb.) = trickling of tiny streams? This pic- 
turesque word still used by miners? — 12. WISDOM. The 
Heb. has the demonstrative " the " or " this," indicating 
absolute wisdom? — whence (Heb.), etc. Lit. from where 
shall it be come to? The question in the first line of this 
verse is as to source, in the second as to place. — 13. the 
price (Heb.). By changing a single Heb. letter {ayin to 
daleth) , the word signifying " price " is changed to a word 
signifying %oay, which many prefer as better suiting the 
context. The question is of source or place, they say, and 
not of value, until we come to 15. So the Sept., Merx, 
Davidson, Siegfried, Driver, Peake, Koyds, Jennings et al. 
The Masoretic text (reading price) has, however, its de- 
fenders; and the Com. and Rev. Vers., English and Amer- 
ican, follow it. — 14. Deep =s the primeval Chaos ? the mass 
of waters covering the earth at creation (Gesenius) ? See 
Gen. i, 2. — Four vast regions appear to be often in the 
poet's mind; viz., "the Land of the Living," "the Deep," 
" the Sea," and " the Underworld " ; which last includes 
Sheol (Hades) and Abaddon (Tartarus). See Gen. i, 2; 
vii, 11; Exod. xx, 4; Ps. xxiv, 2; lii, 5; cxxxvi, 6. — 16. 
lifted, etc. (Heb.) = weighed in the old-fashioned scales. 
See note on vi, 2. — Ophir's, etc. Locality uncertain. See 
note on xxii, 24. — 17. gold and glass. Glass was then rare 
and costly. Have we here a sort of hendiadys ? " glass 
adorned with gold," says Prof. Lewis. — jewels of the pur- 
est its exchange (Heb.). The Heb. word (paz) , denoting 
" purified," is translated " fine gold " in Ps. xix, 10, and in 
seven other places in the 0. T. — 18. worth (Heb.) = pos- 
session (Gesenius) ? acquisition (B. Davidson) ? acquiring 
(Bagster) ? By meton. the Com. and Bev. Vers, have 
"price." — 19. the hid-away (Arabic) =that which is hid- 
den away in treasuries. — ■ 20. The Wisdom. See note on 
verse 12. — 21. the winged of . . . kept close (Heb.) == 
kept concealed from the birds that fly highest. Allusion to 
their wonderful power of vision. See verse 7 above, and 
xxxix, 29; also Eccles. x, 20. — 22. Destruction (Heb. Abad- 
don, abyss of the "infernal pit," abode of Destruction). 
Death. See xxvi, 6; Ps. xlix, 14, 15; Rev. i, 18; ix, 11. — 
with our ears (Heb.) = distinctly? only vaguely with our 
outward organs? Gesenius regards the expression as em- 
phatic. — 23. its way (Heb.) =the way thereto (Driver)? 



204 THE BOOK OP JOB 

See Gen. iii, 24. — In the next two lines He is emphatic, 
says Driver. — 26. Upon His making rule (Heb.) — 27. 
recounted it . . . searched it out (Heb.). "Wisdom," 
says Driver, " is regarded here as a concrete object, or, as 
we should say, an idea, of wonderful complexity; which, at 
the Creation (verse 26), God ' saw/ ' recounted ' or sur- 
veyed in all its various parts, ' established ' or set up as 
though it were a model, ' searched out ' or thoroughly ex- 
plored and finally realized in the universe of created 
things." — 28. Cf. Prov. viii; Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 

Froude takes the whole of this xxviiith chapter to be the 
utterance of Job, " Job's victory and triumph." See his 
eloquent comments (Short Studies on Great Subjects, pp. 
255 256). 

Chapter XXIX. 2. Oh were I = Oh that I were (Heb. 
Who'll give that, etc.). See xiv, 13; xix, 23; xxiii^ 3. — 
months = during months. — the days = in the days. — 4. 
autumn days (Heb.) = days of ripe age? — familiar favor 
=: friendly and confidential converse ? close communion ? 
friendship (Am. Rev., Jennings, and Driver) ? the secret of 
God ( Com. and Eng. Rev. Vers. ) ? — 6. curdled milk. 
"Butter," say the revisers. See xx, 17. — oil = petroleum 
(Davidson, Peake) ? olive oil (Driver) ? "The olive flour- 
ishes in rocky soil . . . the presses were commonly cavities 
hewn out in the rock." Driver. — 7. Upon my going out 
(Heb.). There is some doubt as to the relative positions of 
Job's country seat and the city gate. " To the gate through 
the city " is the language of the Com. Vers. " To the gate 
unto the city " is the phraseology of the Rev. Vers. Did 
he go through the city to reach the gate where the court 
was held? or would he go through that particular gate to 
enter the city? The Heb. may be construed to suit either 
interpretation. — gate beside the city. Here courts of jus- 
tice sat. E. g., " Sublime Porte " == high gate = seat of 
the supreme tribunal. — 8. hid themselves. " As though 
unworthy to catch Job's eye ; with " more than Spartan rev- 
erence for age and dignity." Cook. — 9. hand laid, etc. 
Gesture enjoining silence, as in Shakespeare's 



And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. 



i > 



Hamlet i, v, 188 (Sprague's ed.) — 10. was hushed (Heb. 
hid itself, or was hid). — 11. called me "blest (Heb.). — 12. 
The orphan, and to him no helper (Heb.) =the father- 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 205 

less and also the helpless (Com. Vers, and Conant) ? the 
fatherless who had none to help him (Gesenius, Douay 
Vers., Noyes, Barnes, Rosenmuller, Umbreit, Herder, Mar- 
shall, Rev. Vers., Peake, Jennings ) ? " Either rendering 
permissible." Driver. — 14. it clothed itself with me 
(Heb. it put on me). So Gesenius, Conant, Davidson, 
Marshall, Driver, Peake, Jennings, and the R. V. marg. 
read. Shakespearian vividness of personification! See 
Macbeth, i, vii, 35-37 (Sprague's ed. ). In Judges vi, 34, 
the marg. read., Rev. Vers., has " The Spirit of the Lord 
clothed itself with Gideon! " — 16. And . . . the cause, I 
searched it out. So lit. the Heb. But Davidson, Marshall, 
Driver, Peake, Jennings, and the Rev. Vers, would read 
" the cause of him I knew not," etc. Any practical differ- 
ence in the result? Ever alert, vigilant, eager to find and 
relieve the unfortunate. — 17. We endeavor to reproduce 
the energy of the orig. — jaws (Heb. biters = great teeth) 
— 18. With my nest I shall expire (Heb.) =1 shall die 
in my home? in my dwelling? Does the word nest sug- 
gest the simile in the next line, illustrating Whiter's the- 
ory of the Association of Ideas, one word by its sense or 
sound curiously suggesting another? See on this point 
note in As You Like It, n, vii, 44 (Sprague's ed.). — And 
like the phoenix, etc. Instead of phoenix the usual versions 
give (i sand." But to compare the number of his future 
days on earth to the countless millions of grains of sand 
is a hyperbole too extravagant. And how is he to expire 
in his family home after those many millenniums? The 
acute verbal critics, Conant, Gesenius, Siegfried, Jennings, 
prefer to read "sand." The Greek phoinix (phoenix) in 
Herodotus and other Greek authors means the palm tree 
as well as the fabulous Egyptian bird. The Vulg. has 
" palm " ; the Sept., " branch of palm " ; and Prof. Tayler 
Lewis argues most ingeniously for " palm-tree." The word 
nest favors about equally the tree and the bird. The word 
with, in with my nest, is significant. The phoenix was 
fabled to live five hundred, some said one thousand, years; 
then to make for itself a nest of spices, in which it was 
burned to ashes with its nest. The distinguished oriental 
and Hebrew scholar, Dr. R. W. Rogers, of Drew Theological 
Sem., wrote us as follows : " I prefer to read ' phoenix.' 
. . . There is considerable support among versions for 
* sand ' ; but it is not sufficient to outweigh the uniform 
ancient Hebrew tradition and the analogy of language." 



206 THE BOOK OP JOB 

So Delitzsch arguing at some length. Peake prefers phoe- 
nix. So Royds. — See Shakespeare's The Tempest, in, iii, 
23 (Sprague's eel.) ; also the Class. Diet., especially An- 
thon's. — -Verse 19. spread out to the waters (Heb. opened 
to the waters). — 20. my bow — my strength and vigor? 
See Gen. xlix, 24. — 22. discourse distilled. See Deut. 
xxxii, 2; Homer's Iliad, i, 249. — 23. as for rain, etc. The 
" former " or " early " rain, important to start the growth, 
fell in the late autumn or early winter ; the " latter " rain, 
needed to fill out and ripen the grain, came usually in 
March. We hardly appreciate the preciousness of rain, 
especially of the spring rain in those regions. — 24. Be- 
lieved they not = if they were despondent ( or when they 
had no confidence) ? So Am. Rev.; marg. read. Eng. Rev.; 
also in substance Merx, Delitzsch, Renan, Ewald, David- 
son, Grenung, Dillmann, Gilbert, Marshall, Driver. The 
Com. Vers, and the Eng. Rev. have, " If I laughed on them, 
they believed it not 5 '; so Noyes, Conant, Cook, O. Cary. 
These explain " they believed not," by saying they could 
hardly believe the great man could be so condescending, or 
that they were so fortunate as to gain his warm approval. 
The Am. Rev. (1901) gives us, " I smiled upon them when 
they had no confidence." So Jennings. — my face light 
they cast not down = they shunned everything that might 
bring a shade of displeasure to my countenance (Cook, 
Conant) ? their despondency never clouded my cheerfulness 
(Davidson, Driver) ? 

Verses 21-25 belong logically and rhetorically next after 
verse 10. Why are they not there? Is the dislocation a 
symptom of his malady? 

In all literature it would be difficult to find a more 
finished and beautiful portrayal of a noble character than 
Job has painted of himself in this twenty-ninth chapter. 
But with the recurring violence of his disease, the frightful 
contrast between the past and the present looms up more 
terribly than before. Lucidity alternates with rayless! 
gloom. We have basked for half an hour in the " sweetness 
and light " of a great and gifted soul. But the interval 
of calm has ceased. A relapse comes. Frenzy returns; 
and we 

" Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh." 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 207 

Chief in the assembly; king in the army; best of all, as 
capping the moral climax, comforter of the sorrowing! 
But now despised by even the lowest of human beings, tor- 
tured beyond endurance by disease, falsely accused by those 
who should have been his best friends, seemingly abandoned 
by God, he is almost if not quite delirious with indignation 
and agony. 

Chapter XXX. Verses 1-8, descriptive of outcasts, pos- 
sibly aborigines. — ■ Verse 1. less in days (Heb.) = younger. 
— 2. Even their hands' strength. All the strength they 
have, their brute strength, is prematurely gone. — 2. in 
whom completion. Text somewhat doubtful. The Com. 
Vers, gives " old age " ; the Rev. Vers. " ripe age," with 
marg. read. " vigor." In the fifth chapter, verse 26, the 
word is rendered full age. The idea implied appears to be 
completeness, maturity, manhood. — 3. Text and sense dis- 
puted. — gnawing (Heb. = those gnawing) ? — 4. pluck- 
ings (Heb, == what is plucked off for those gathering) ? — 
6. horror of the valleys (Heb.) =in the most dreaded of 
valleys (Driver) ? gloomy gorges (Conant) ? clefts of the 
valleys (Rev. Vers.) ? frightful valleys (Am. Rev.) ? 
Etymologically they appear to be chasms or wadys worn 
down by torrents of water. — holes of the earth and rocks 
(Heb.). They are troglodytes, cave-dwellers like wild 
beasts. — 7. nettles. Gesenius renders the word " bram- 
bles"; others, "thorn-bushes." — huddled (Heb.) = gath- 
ered close together. For mutual warmth? for protection? 
The marg. read, of the R. V. is " stretch themselves " — 10. 
spare (Heb.) = withhold. — from my face, etc. (Heb.) 
Does it mean they spit in my face (Com. and Rev. Vers.) ? 
standing at a distance, spit in my face? they spit at the 
sight of me, in my presence, an offence against propriety? 
See xvii, 6; 7s. 1, 6. — 11. Text and meaning uncertain. — 
His rein = rein holding my enemies in check ? rein holding 
Himself in check? rein holding me in check? The Com. 
Vers, gives, " Loosed my cord," explained by Delitzsch as 
" the life power, which holds together our bodily frame." 
Cook concurs. See " tent-cord " in iv, 21. The Rev. Vers, 
have " His cord." Our first explanation perhaps makes 
the best parallel with the following line? — 12. the beast- 
brood (Heb. offspring of beasts) =the gang of wretches 
described in the first ten verses of this chapter ? — cast up 
against me, etc. Siege imagery again. See xix, 12. — 13. 
to them no helper. Conant would translate thus : " There 



208 THE BOOK OP JOB 

is no helper against them." — 14. a wide breach, etc. The 
latest revisers give us, " As by ( or through ) a wide breach 
they come." The Com. Vers, has " They came as a wide 
breaking in (of waters)." — under (Heb.) — 15. Terrors, 
etc. See Par. Lost, ii, 801 (Sprague's ed.) — mine honor. 
So the Rev. Vers. Mine honor — my princely dignity ? — 

16. poured out upon me (Heb.) In tears and groans? — 

17. By night my bones are pierced from on me. We en- 
deavor to translate lit. ; but the line is variously inter- 
preted. — gnawers of me =■ my gnawing pains ( Gesenius, 
Peake, Jennings, and Eev. Vers.)? — 18. force = force of 
God? of myself? of my attendants? of my pains (Jennings) ? 
of my disease (Rev. Vers.) ? The Eng. Rev. give, in the 
marg., "of God," which the Am. Rev. (1901) adopt. — 
changed = disfigured ( Conant and Rev. Vers. ) ? We ad- 
here to the Com. Vers.; but no explanation is entirely sat- 
isfactory. Says Siegfried, " The underlying image is that 
of pursuit by an enemy: the pursuer seizes him by his 
garment, in which he is closely enveloped, and throws him 
down. See next verse." — 20. I stand up, and thou lookest 
at me, etc. So the Eng. Rev. In this line Noyes, Sieg- 
fried, and many others following the Com. Vers., insert 
" not/' which Siegfried declares to be " absolutely neces- 
say." But does not the affirmative statement lend a more 
dramatic interest? The Am. Rev. read, "thou gazest at 
me." " Gazest " is perhaps too significant of regardful 
interest. Cold indifference seems complained of. — 21. 
turned to cruel (Heb.) — Thy hand's strength (Heb.) — 
persecutest. So the R. V. — 22. lif test me ... in storm 
(Heb.). Reminds of Carlyle's description of the "Sahara 
Waltz" {French Revolution, XVI, Chap. i). — 23. house of 
meeting ( Heb. ) = the grave ? Sheol ? — 24. Text and trans- 
lation questionable. Siegfried declares that the received 
text " seems here, as well as in the versions, to be entirely 
void of sense." So difficult is it to straighten out into 
smooth syntax the broken speech of one almost dying! 
We endeavor, however, to translate the words literally, and 
in the order in which they stand in the received text; as 
follows : 

"Merely — not praying! — will stretch out the hand, 
Though, none the less, in his calamity he cry for help ; ' ' 

and we interpret thus : One in my condition cannot for- 
mulate a prayer, but merely stretch out an imploring hand, 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 209 

and in his calamity utter an inarticulate cry for help. — 25. 
hard-of-day = him whose day was hard = him who was in 
deep trouble ? — 26. thick darkness. " A poetic word here 
and in iii, 6; x, 22; xxviii, 3," says Gesenius. — 27. come 
upon me (Heb.) — 28. Darkened • . . without the sun 
(Heb.) =3 darkened in skin, but not tanned by the sun 
(Gesenius, Dillmann) ? darkened in attire, in a gloomy sun- 
less condition (Delitzsch) ? in dark and squalid attire as a 
mourner (Driver) ? discolored by black leprosy, not sun- 
browned (Cook) ? — went. He does not go about now! 
Is he now allowed in the assembly? See Chap, ii, 13. — 29. 
jackals . • • ostriches (wailers). These creatures havo 
mournful voices? — ostrich-brood (Heb. offspring of the 
ostrich) — 30. My skin — from on me — black (Heb.) I.e., 
my skin turns black, and falls from me (Rev. Vers.) ? — 31. 

And unto mourning is my harp, 

My pipe to voice of weeping. (Heb. lit. trans.). 

Chapter XXXI. Another lucid hour! He improves it 
to asseverate his. perfect innocence! — 1. Heb. / cut a cove- 
nant (alluding to the custom of cutting up victims offered 
in sacrifice, in order to give solemnity to the compact ) . — 
for mine eyes, etc. Not with my eyes: the eyes are not 
simply a party to the agreement: a law is prescribed for 
them. Is the covenant with God ? with himself ? — gaze on, 
etc. See Matt, v, 28. " Job's morality has a true ' evan- 
gelical tinge/ condemning sins of the heart." Cheyne. — 
2. from God the portions the God-given allotment. — 4. 
Doth He not, etc. He is emphatic. — 5. insincerity (Heb. 
shav' =s falseness ) . The word seems stronger than our 
"vanity." — 6. even balances scales of justice. See note, 
vi, 2. "In the Egyptian Ritual the ( balance * forms an 
essential part of the ' Judgment of Osiris/ See Vignette, 
Chap, cxxv, E. R., or Todtenluch, PI. iv." Cook. — 7. the 
way = the way of righteousness. — after my eyes. See 1st 
verse. — 8. The 6 stage direction/ JOB (rising and lifting 
his hands), which the M. R. B. prefixes to this chapter, 
might better come in here? — my produce (Heb. issues, 
upspringings) = produce of my field (Davidson, Marshall, 
Driver, Rev. Vers.) ? plants (Geneva Vers.) ? offspring 
(Com. Vers.)? — 9-12 refer to married women? — 9. lain 
in wait (Heb. lurked, waited secretly). Singularly the 
versions with hardly an exception make the blunder of 



210 THE BOOK OP JOB 

using here the words " laid wait/' which properly mean 
" formed an ambuscade "; since " laid " comes from " lay," 
to place; "lain" from "lie," to rest (lurk, or be) in a 
crouching or reclining position with sinister intent. — 10. 
grind = grind grain with the hand-mill, the work of toiling 
women, slaves, and captives. See Is. xlvii, 2; Judges xvi, 
21; Matt, xxiv, 41; Milton's Samson Agonistes, 35, 1161. 
( Not a treadmill in Milton's drama ; for Samson says, " My 
heels are fettered, but my fist is free.") — 11, 12. We en- 
deavor to follow here what appears to be elliptical, dra- 
matic, perhaps ejaculatory, in the original. — 12. Abaddon. 
See xxvi, 6; xxviii, 22. — 13. the right — the legal right? 
the equitable right? the cause (Com. and R. V.) ? suit in 
litigation? — 13. their contention (Heb.). — 15. Virtual 
recognition here of the universal brotherhood so finely for- 
mulated by St. Paul in his masterpiece spoken on Mars' 
Hill, Acts xvii, 26? — 16. the wish = what they desired to 
obtain ? — to fail = waste away, pine and perish with vain 
longing. See xi, 20; Ps. lxix, 3. — 18. Whether in oratory 
or poetry, it is almost impossible to produce a sufficient 
impression without over-statement. — 20. In the second line 
here, as in the second line of 15 above, the translators 
insert the word "not." — 21. For = because. — in the gate 
= in the court that held its sessions next the gateway? 
See v, 4; xxix, 7; Shakespeare's Meas. for Meas. v, i, stage 
direction. — 23. for His Loftiness (Heb.) = because of His 
awful sublimity. The usual versions have " highness " or 
" excellency." Conant and the Am. Rev. have " majesty." 
— I could not = I could not do such wrong? I am power- 
less (Conant)? — 24. hoarded (Heb. or Arab, hid aicay) 
=3 finest gold, or most precious treasure stowed away? 
xxviii, 19. — 25. for = because. So in 21 and 23 above. 
See Merch. of Ven. I, iii, 36; The Tempest, I, ii, 272 
( Sprague's editions ) . — 24, 25 ; idolatry of wealth : 26-28, 
idolatry of sun and moon. — 26. beheld = specially re- 
garded? — The Light (Heb.) = the "greater light," the 
sun. See Gen. i, 18. — when brilliant (Heb. when it shone; 
unwonted lustre implied). — • 27. my heart, etc. No form 
of idolatry was more common. See Jere. xliv, 17-25; Ezek. 
viii, 16; Bent, iv, 19; 2 Kings xxiii, 5; the Koran, vi, 76; 
xli. — kissed my hand my mouth (Heb. my hand kissed to 
mouth). The commentators appear uncertain as to which 
kissed! "Mouth kissed" is prose; "hand kissed" is poe- 
try. — '28. for magistrates = to be taken cognizance of by 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 211 

the judges. Verse 11 ante. — I'd been false = I should 
have been false. An idolater in secret; in public, osten- 
sibly a worshiper of God! See Rom. i, 25. — 30. life (Heb. 
breath). So iii, 20; vi, 7, and elsewhere. — 31. Who'll 
give forth (Heb.) =3 who'll say. — From his meat we've 
not been satisfied (Heb.) — 32. doors = double doors? 
The word is in the dual number. — way ( Heb. ) . So that 
the wayfarer might freely enter? The Heb. word is often 
used poetically for " traveler." — ■ 33. Adam-like. Most 
scholars prefer to use the expression " man-like 2 " or some- 
thing equivalent. The Heb. allows either rendering. 
Adam tried to hide his sin, Gen. iii, 8-10. — 34. Because 
(Heb. ki, giving the reason for what precedes). We follow 
the R. V. — 35. Oh had I one to hear me (Heb. Who'll give 
me to listen to me. So in xi, 5; xix, 23; xxix, 2). — signa- 
ture (Heb. mark, or sign) =■ subscription or sign manual 
affixed to pleadings ? a sign cruciform ( Gesenius ) ? — scroll 
(Heb. book; in the form of a roll) = indictment? accusa- 
tion? Interpret thus: Oh had I the formal indictment! 
— 36. lift (Heb.) — 37. The number of my steps I'd tell 
(Heb.) = Fd tell Him every act of my life (Davidson) ? 
disclose in detail every step of my life (Marshall) ? — 39. 
strength (Heb.) = produce, fruit? — money (Heb. silver); 
money paid to the laborers? See James v, 4. — owners 
(Heb.) =the rightful owners of the produce? the rightful 
owners of the land? See xxiv, 2; Micah ii, 2. — 40. thorns 
(Heb.). This rendering of the Heb. word is preferred in 
the lexicons of Gesenius, B. Davidson, and Bagster. — 
noisome weeds (Aramaic). The latest editors prefer this 
phrase to " cockles." All the versions give it as a marg. 
read. — Verses 38, 39 seem to come in awkwardly after 37. 
Logically they belong next after 12 or 23 or 25; — or 38, 
39, 40 might follow 34. Furthermore the splendor of verses 
35, 36, 37, ending with 

AS PRINCE WOULD I GO NEAR HlM, 

constitutes a natural close to this remarkable speech. And 
yet something is needed immediately to precede and intro- 
duce the final imprecation. 

If the rhetoric is faulty, may the sufferer's extreme agi- 
tation account ,f or it ? Is it not sometimes so in Shake- 
speare? See King Lear, n, iv, 275-283 (Furness' ed.) ; 
Macbeth, i, ii, 2CM22 (Sprague's ed.). 



212 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Chapter XXXII. 2. Buzite. See Gen. xxii, 21.— 3. 
Davidson points out the error in the Com. Vers. It should 
read, " had not found an answer and condemned Job." — 4. 
waited for Job with words (Heb. ) = waited to speak to 
Job. — 5. anger. The word " wrath " in this verse, and in 
verses 2 and 3 above, is evidently too strong. The Heb. 
(aph) =nostril 3 face, anger, sometimes wrath. — 6. Small 
I . . . (etc., as far as) teach wisdom (Heb.) — 7. breathe 
out my opinion, etc. == show you my views. — 8. The Al- 
mighty's breath, etc. See Gen. ii, 7; John xx, 22. — 9. 
Justice. This word conveys the meaning at present more 
accurately than "judgment"? — 11. reasonings. So the 
Am. Rev. — 12. to Job, etc. =: Job has not one that con- 
futes him. — 13. That, etc. The R. V. supply " Beware." It 
does not seem necessary, and it is not in the orig. May 
Elihu's thought be, " I mention your failure, lest you should 
say," etc.; " whereas, on the contrary, J can overthrow 
Job's arguments"? — putteth him to flight (Heb.). — 14. 
against me, etc. Is Elihu conceited? — 15. They are 
amazed. Well they might be? — Are 15-20 an "aside"? 
— Words have been taken from them (Heb.) =they have 
not a word to say (Rev. Vers.) ? " The 3d pers. plu. for the 
passive." — 16. wait for they speak not (Heb.) =wait on 
account of their silence? — '19. Will burst (Heb. ivill be 
burst). — bottles = wine-skins ? See Matt, ix, 17. — 't will 
be breath (Heb.) =it will be like getting out into the 
open air, and taking breath? it will be refreshing? 

Chapter XXXIII. 2. in my palate (Heb.) z=with inner 
good sense? with discernment? with taste? properly for- 
mulated before it reached my lips? — 3. purified (Heb. 
separated; i. e., from error) Gesenius makes the participle 
equivalent to an adverb meaning " purely." The R. V. give 
"sincerely." — 6. Lo I, e£c. = notice that I, agreeably to 
your wish, am in the same relation to God as you are. As 
to the wish, see ix, 32-34. — moulded (Heb. pinched; i. e., 
as a piece of clay pressed by the potter's fingers) — 7. my 
hand's . . . heavy, etc. (Heb.) — For hand's palm the 
R. V. substitute "pressure." See xiii, 21. — Verses 8, 9, 
10, 11. Elihu remembers well! — 10. grounds of quarrel, 
etc. The Heb. word is variously rendered occasions, frus- 
trations, enmities, alienations, pretexts, withdrawals, op- 
portunities. Coverdale (1535) renders the line, "He hath 
pyked a quarrel with me." — 13. For of His, etc. = because 
of His giving no account of any of His affairs. — 14. Not- 



EXPLANATOEY NOTES 213 

withstanding His infinite greatness, He does vouchsafe 
some account, though man " heedeth it not." — 15. vision 
of the night, etc. See iv, 13, 14 et seq. — 16. uncovereth 
( Heb. ) — sealeth = confirms ? — instruction. The Heb. 
implies also admonition or warning ; and the commentators 
tell us this suggestion of learning is Elihu's most important 
contribution to the solution of the mystery of suffering. — 
17. withdraw the man — the deed (Heb.) = withdraw the 
man from his purposed deed. — cover (Heb.) = hide from 
view, lest it attract? — 18. missile shafts — weapons 
hurled or shot = God's destructive judgments (Davidson)? 
— 20. life = spirit? appetite? — 23. messenger (Heb.). 
The " messenger " was often an angel ; and, as the etymology 
implies, an angel was usually a messenger. — 24. A ransom. 
"Nothing else than Job's trial itself" (Jennings). — 25. 
Fresher . . . again (Heb.). — 26. with shouts of joy 
(Heb.) — 27. singeth. So recent vers. — yet 't was not 
requited me. So Conant, Davidson, Gilbert, Driver, Peake, 
Jennings, Marshall, and marg. read. R. V. We follow the 
Heb.; but the Com. Vers, (followed by the Rev.) has "it 
profited me not," an idea which seems incongruous with 
the joy. — -29. twice, thrice = often. — 30. To light in 
light of the living (Heb.) mthat he may be enlightened 
with the light of life (R. V.) ? — 32. If words there are 
(Heb. ) =if there is anything to be said = if thou hast 
anything to say ( R. V. ) . 

In Chapter XXXIII, after his long and nervous introduc- 
tion in XXXII, continued through the first six or eight 
verses of XXXIII, Elihu settles down to business. He 
tells of God's beneficent ministrations through visions, 
dreams, sickness, and angels. Genung imputes to him in 
xxxii, " verbosity, self-confidence, egotism, and tumidity 
mistaken for inspiration," and in xxxiii he thinks he dis- 
covers " a full-fledged theory of atonement." 

At the conclusion of xxxiii the M. R. B. appends the 
"stage direction," (He looks to Job: Job makes no sign. 
Elihu turns to the three Friends. 

Chapter XXXIV. 2. ye wise, etc.=je three Friends 
(Moulton) ? ye wise who are among the bystanders? ye 
wise anywhere? — knowing (Heb.) =ye that have knowl- 
edge. — 3. ear trieth. Echo of xii, 11? — 4. Choose we = 
let us choose. — 5. Job hath said, etc. See ix, 21; xxvii, 
2, 5, 6, etc. — 6. I am a liar (Heb.) =1 am accounted a liar 
( Rev, Vers. ) ? — my arrow ( Heb. ) = my arrow wound. 



214 THE BOOK OP JOB 

See vi, 4; xvi, 13. Metonymy of cause for effect? — no 
transgression = innocent. " The two Heb. words coalesce 
into one idea." Gesenius. — 7. Drinketh, etc. (Heb.) =: 
delights in impious mockery? thirsts for scornful utterance? 
— " Elihu is offensive ; too positive and dogmatic." Cheyne. 
See xv, 16. — 9. It nothing profiteth, etc. See ix, 24; xxi, 
7-26.— in the delighting of himself (Heb.)— 10. heart 
(Heb.) =z understanding? "brains"? So in xii, 3; xxxiv, 
34. — 11. render = requite. — 14. heart = mind, attention. 
— on Him (Heb.) = upon Himself (Davidson, Marshall, 
Driver, Am. Rev. (1901), Jennings) ? upon man (Com. and 
Eng. Rev. Vers. ? Conant) ? make Himself the object of His 
exclusive regard? be strict to mark iniquity? — spirit . . • 
breath, etc. See Gen. ii, 7; Eccles. xii, 7. — 16. If under- 
standing =: if thou hast understanding. — this = this which 
is to be said in 17 et seq. — 17. wilt condemn, etc. See 
xviii, 25. — 18. belial (Heb. )=: vile, both worthless and 
wicked. The personification of " belial " came later. See 
2 Corinth, vi, 15. — 18. Note two interpretations; (1) Is 
it fit that a man should say to a king, " Thou art wicked 
(belial) "; (2) Wilt thou condemn God who saith to a 
king, "Thou art wicked (belial)." The Am. Rev. prefer 
the latter. So Peake and Jennings. — 19. face (Heb.) = 
persons. — accepteth. ~ shows partiality to. — 20. A wink 
(Heb.) =ina wink, in a twinkling. — without hand (Heb.) 
=^ without human agency? See Dan. ii, 34, 45; viii, 25; 
Lament, iv, 6. — 21, 22. See Ps. cxxxix, 11, 12; Henry V, 
IV, i, 157 et seq.; Xen. Anabasis, n, v, 7. — 23. on a man. 
Man is emphatic? — think twice = take the subject into 
consideration a second time ? — 24. without inquiry = 
without investigation. This rendering is decidedly pre- 
ferred by Conant, Davidson, Marshall, Peake, Jennings, 
and Driver, to the read, in the Com. Vers., " without num- 
ber,' and to the R. V., "in ways past finding out." — 25. 
in the night He overturneth, etc. As the eruption of Mt. 
Pelee, May 8, 1902, wiped out the city of St. Pierre, Mar- 
tinique! — 26. in the beholders' place = (Heb. in place of 
beholding) = in the open view of spectators? — 27. because 
they turned from after Him (Heb.) = because they turned 
aside from following Him (R. V.) ? — 28. To cause, etc. 
Result of their conduct ? effecting God's purpose ? both ? — 
29. He. Emphatic. — tumult make. So Gesenius. The 
Com. Vers, has " make trouble." The R. V. read " con- 
demn," i. e., find fault (with God). — face hideth = shows 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 215 

displeasure? See Numbers vi, 25, 26; Ps. iv, 6. — 30. Away 
from . . . reign (Heb.), etc.= gives quiet away from? — 
from the ensnarers, etc. ( Heb. ) = hides His face from? 

— 31. God. Emphatic? — borne = borne chastisement? — 
offend I not = though I act not perversely (marg. read. 
R. V.; Ewald, Renan, Davidson, Gilbert 2 Marshall, Driver) ? 
I will not offend any more (Noyes, Barnes, Conant, Genung, 
O. Gary, Com. and Rev. Vers. ) ? — 32. Beyond my seeing 

(Heb. besides I see; i. e., in addition to what I see). — thou. 
Emphatic? — If. Emphatic? — 33. from with thee, etc. 

(Heb.) = shall He recompense it according to thy mind? 

Must He follow your wishes? Are you dissatisfied? then 
choose a better way. Speak out. — 34. intelligence (Heb. 
heart, as in verse 10 above). 

Verses 29-33 are encompassed with difficulties. We have 
to read "between the lines." Commentators disagree; but 
the general sense seems quite clear. — 35. wanting wisdom 
(Heb. not with wisdom) . — 36. My wish (Heb.) = my desire 
is that. — unto the end (Heb.) = to the utmost? to "a 
finish " ? He seems to think he could have added something 
more crucial to the tests which had taxed the ingenuity of 
"the Satan"! — 37. rebellion . . . sin (Heb.). Sin is a 
missing, a misstep; rebellion is disloyalty or even treason. 

— Clappeth, etc. Singularly our demonstrative applause 
by hand-clapping then expressed intense mocking disappro- 
bation. See xxvii, 23; Lament, ii, 15. 

Chapter XXXV. 2. more . . . than God's. See iv, 17. 
Inferential from ix, 22 ; x, 3 ; xii, 6, etc. — 3. thou say'st, 
etc. Is the saying implied in ix, 22, 31, etc.; x, 3; xxi, 7 
et seq.f — 4. I. Emphatic? — 5. the skies, etc. See xi, 8; 
xxii, 12. — view = survey (Gesenius) ? 6. doest thou to — 
effectest thou against (Am. Rev.)? — 7. If righteous, etc. 
Repeating xxii, 2 2 3. Deistic? — 8. For a man like thee, 
etc. = to a man like thee thy wickedness or righteousness 
would be effective, hurting or profiting (Com. and Rev. 
Vers. ) ? — 9. From ( Heb. ) = by reason of. — they = the 
sufferers ? — 10. giving ( Heb. ) = who giveth ? — songs, 
etc. See Ps. xlii ? 8; lxxvii, 6. — 11. teaching (Heb.) = 
who teacheth? — 13. vanity (Heb. emptiness, unreality) =z 
empty cry (Am. Rev.) ? — 14. behold'st Him not. See xiii, 
24; xxiii, 3, 8, 9. — cause = case for trial? — wait for, etc. 
So the R. V. Sense doubtful. — 15. But now, because . . . 
not visit (Heb.) — transgression. So Gesenius and David- 
son. The R. V. give "arrogance." — 16. breath (Heb.) = 



316 THE BOOK OF JOB 

empty sound? See Is. xxix, 13; Matt, xv, 8; Macbeth, v, 
iii, 27 (Sprague's ed.). 

Chapter XXXVI. 2. wait for me (Heb.) — Because 
. . . yet words for God (Heb.). Expanded into, "For I 
have yet somewhat to say on God's behalf." So the R. V. — 

3. from far = from far-off ages ? from distant regions ? 
from heaven? with a broad grasp of the subject (Davidson, 
Driver, et al.) ? — Knowledge = philosophy (Marshall) ? — 

4. perfect in knowledge. Meaning Elihu himself (Noyes, 
Barnes, Davidson, Cheyne, Genung, 0. Cary, Cook, Ray- 
mond, Marshall, Peake, Driver ) ? Means God ( Lewis ) ? See 
xxxvii, 16. — 5. Behold, etc. Ellipses filled with gestures, 
or, as in Tennyson, " Filled with light the interval of 
sound." — mighty (Heb. kabbir, a poetic word akin to the 
Arabic Akbar in the Mohammedan doxology? Alla Akbar, 
Great is Allah!) — But none despiseth (Heb.) — 6. pre- 
serveth not, etc. Contradicting Job? See xii, 6; xxi, 7, 
etc. — 7. for aye (Heb.). Lewis prefers to render the Heb. 
word by "in glory." — 9. insolently (Heb.) So Gesenius. 

— 12. missile shaft. The Heb. (shelach) properly signifies 
a weapon shot or hurled, as an arrow, dart, or javelin. Put 
for any weapon? for divine judgments? — 13. anger = re- 
sentment against God (Umbreit, Davidson, Genung, Driver, 
Peake, Jennings) ? God's wrath against them (Barnes, 
Noyes citing Rom. ii, 5) ? We give the lit. translation; 
which, as Conant remarks, " bears either interpretation." — 
impure. This word is etymologically more correct than 
the " hypocrites " of the Com. Vers. Confirmed by verse 14. 

— 14. Dieth their soul (Heb. breath) in youth (Heb.) — 
sodomites (Heb. set apart, devoted). They are "conse- 
crated " to obscenity in heathen temples ! dedicated to pros- 
titution in the worship of Astarte! the cinaedi of Catullus 
and Juvenal; hierodouloi (temple-slaves) in the temple of 
Baal? See Deut. xxiii, 17; Num. xxv; / Kings xiv, 24. — 
15. by affliction, etc. So the R. V. instead of the " in af- 
fliction " of the Com. V. — 16. from the mouth of Straitness 

(Heb.) — food (Heb. the setting, the "spread"; i. e., the 
food set upon the table). — 17. judgment of the wicked = 
judgment expressed by the wicked, their condemnation of 
God (Umbreit, Barnes, Budde, Conant, Davidson, Delitzsch, 
Marshall, Jennings) ? God's judgment on the wicked (Dill- 
mann, Ewald, Driver)? — Judgment and justice. Com- 
bined? "judgment, of which the element is justice" (Co- 
nant) ? Hendiadys? condemnation by God with penalty 



EXPLANATOKY NOTES 217 

(Jennings)? — fast hold (on thee)? — 18. Interpretation 
doubtful. The translators supply " Beware," which seems 
implied. — lead thee into mockery. Marg. read. E. R. V. — 
ransom = expiation ? Job's severe afflictions? In xxxiii, 24, 
Driver interprets " ransom " as meaning " the sinner's pen- 
itence, brought about by sickness " ; or, here, " sufferings, 
regarded as the price at which God will spare his life." See 
verse 15. But from 17 to 20 the text and sense are disputed. 

— 19. We adhere to the Com. Vers. — 20. pant not for (Heb.) 
= sigh not for = long not for ? — go up ( Heb. ) = go up ( in 
smoke and flame) ? vanish? — in their place = in the place 
where they happen to be ? — 22. Lo, loftily God doeth in His 
power! So the K. V. — 25. Afar off man beholdeth. Too 
far away to be fully perceived and appreciated ? — 29. rend- 
ings ( Heb. ) . See xxvi, 8. — pavilion. See Ps. xviii, 11. — 30. 
bottom (Heb. roots !) = the ocean depths (Conant) ? "the 
fountains of the great deep " (Gen. vii, 11) ? " the bottom of 
the celestial sea," " the waters that be above the heavens " 
(Marshall) ? sea of clouds above (Hirzel, Schlottmann) ? 
" the densest mass of waters as if drawn from the ocean 
depths " ( Ewald ) ? To sift out the " argument " of verses 
29, 30, 31, turning lofty poetry into bald prose, we might 
say, From the brightness of highest heaven to the darkness 
of deepest sea, He is working; yet is both just and kind. — 
See 'Gen. i, 7; Ps. xviii 2 11-15; xxix, 3; xcvii, 2, 4; civ, 2; 
Par. Lost, n, 263-268 (Sprague's ed.). Jennings thinks 
he sees in verse 30 a poetic picture of " the bright and dark 
sides of the thunder-cloud." — 31. by them = by lightnings 
and rain-cloud (Davidson) ? by terrors and blessings of the 
storm (Conant) ? by the spreadings of the clouds (Driver) ? 

— 32. Both palms (Dual form in the Heb.). — strike the 
mark. See vii, 20. Text and sense uncertain. — 33. of com- 
ing up = that which cometh up = of Him, i. e., God 
approaching (Davidson, Driver, Jennings) ? ascending flame 
(Lewis, Grenung) ? approaching storm (Com. and Rev. V., 
O. Cary) ? Conant renders thus: "Him who is on high." 
Peake remarks that " more than 30 explanations of this 
verse have been given 2 " none satisfactory. 

Chapter XXXVII. In the last verses of xxxvi and the 
first of xxxvii it appears as if Elihu would utilize the signs 
of an approaching thunder storm. At the close of verse 
21 in xxxvi, the M. R. B. inserts as a "stage direction" 
the following: {From this point signs of an approaching 
storm become visible in the sky. At the end of xxxvi 



218 THE BOOK OF JOB 

(close of verse 33) the M. R. B. adds another "direction"; 
viz., (A loud peal of thunder: the storm steadily increases, 
XXXVII. 1. leapeth (Heb.). — 2. Listening hear. Heb. 
idiom expressive of emphasis. See xiii, 17; xxi, 2. — rum- 
bling . . . muttering (Heb.) — 3. wings (Heb.) = skirts, 
edges, ends? — 4. voice sublime (Heb. voice of sublimity, or 
voice of exaltation). — stay them = stay the thunders and 
lightnings? let them linger (Conant) ? flash after flash 
without intermission (Cook)? 

," His voice sublime is heard afar, 
In distant peals it dies; 
He yokes the whirlwind to His car, 
And sweeps the howling skies! " 

— 6. burst of rain. Not ordinary rain, but heavy and 
prolonged ? So Conant, citing Gen. vii, 12. — 7. sealeth, 
etc. Said because winter stops field work, and gives time 
for meditation ? — 9. Chamber = an imaginary region in 
the south, supposed to contain the constellations unseen in 
the north, and regarded as a storehouse of storms? Like 
iEolus' cave of the winds (Renan) ! See Virgil's Mneid, 
I, 52-54. See ix, 9, ante; xxxviii, 22, 23. — the Scatterers 
(Heb.) = the cold north winds that scatter the clouds. 
But this interpretation is doubted. " With a trifling alter- 
ation " Voigt and Peake would read storehouses or gran- 
aries. — 10. narrowed, etc. " The edges of the stream be- 
ing frozen/' says Driver. — 11. with moisture ladeth, etc. 
So the R. V. — 12. is turned, etc. What is turned? cloud 
(Delitzsch, Dillmann) ? lightning (Ewald, Budde) ? both? 
The verb is commonly reflexive: hence Driver would read, 
"it (the lightning) turneth itself." — they = clouds, rain, 
lightning, etc. (Noyes) ? lightning flashes or thunder-clouds 
(Marshall) ? "cloud" of verse 11, used collectively (David- 
son) ? lightning flashes (Driver) ? — 13. scourge (Heb. rod 
of correction). — 16. Wonders . . . knowledge (Heb.) — 

17. Who, thy garments warm = thou, whose garments are 
warm (marg. read. R. V., preferred by Driver) ? Dost thou 
know how thy garments are warm (Am. Rev., 1901)? — 
The M. R. B. appears to regard verse 17 as a detached 
statement, parenthetical between the questions in 16 and 

18. In any interpretation, there appears to be anacoluthon 
here. — earth is still, etc. So Am. Rev. Stillness preced- 
ing the Simoom or Sirocco ? — South = hot south wind from 
the desert? — 18. spread out (Heb. beat out, as metal is 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 219 

beaten out flat or hollow). — molten mirror. The mirrors 
of the ancients were of polished metal. In the Heb. word 
for firmament {raqia) are combined the ideas of solidity, 
expansion, and tenuity. See Gen. i, 7; Ezek. i, 22-26; and 
the Bible Diet. — 19. for = because of. — 20. Shall it be 
. . . speak (Heb.) — Or doth man speak, etc. = is he so 
desirous to be annihilated? — 21. they gaze not on the 
light (Heb.). Much less on God! — Light (Heb.) = the 
sun, as in xxxi 2 26? lightning (Lewis) ? — 22. Gold (Heb.) 
= a burst of golden splendor, as of the northern aurora? 
Conant dissents from this interpretation: he says the 
source of gold can be traced, but God is incomprehensible; 
therefore to be feared. Elihu seems agitated, speaking now 
by fits and starts. — - As to Jehovah's coming from the north, 
Siegfried aptly cites Ezek. i, 4. See also Ezek. i, 1, 22, 24, 
26, 28, last clause. 

Milton (Par. Lost, v, 689, 755; vi 2 79), following Greg- 
ory the Great on Job xxvi, 7, or taking a hint from Isaiah 
xiv, 13, locates Satan in the far north! 

23. And judgment . . . violateth not. So substantially 
the R. V. Is this an answer to Job's complaint in xix, 6, 7 
et seqf — ■ 24. Therefore men fear, etc. "The fear of the 
Lord " in the Scriptures seems a compound of awe, respect, 
and affection, toward a Being infinite in power, justice, and 
love. Hence Elihu's use of the word " therefore " ? — Not 
any wise of heart, etc. Commonly interpreted thus: God 
cares not for any wis"e in their own conceit. But would 
not that be a tame and feeble statement, besides attaching 
an unusual sense to " wise of heart " ? May it be part of 
an incomplete sentence? May verses 22, 23, 24, be but half 
utterances, evidencing what he says in verse 19 of his ina- 
bility? 

Alexander von Humboldt is said to have greatly admired 

this speech of Elihu. Renan characterizes Elihu's style as 

" cold, heavy, pretentious, bizarrerie and affectation." Is 

the speech an interpolation ? " It is a later addition " 

( Peake ) . 

At the close of verse 13 the M. R. B. inserts the " stage 
direction" (" The storm has become a whirlwind, the whole 
scene is wrapped in thick darkness, broken by flashes of 
lightning." At the close of verse 20 it inserts (''Super- 
natural brightness mingles strangely icith the darkness of 
the storm." At the end of the chapter it adds (" The roar 
of the whirlwind gives place to a VOICE," 



220 THE BOOK OF JOB 

See in BushnelPs Sermons for the "New Life a remarkable 
discourse on verse 21 as a text, as it reads in the Com. Vers. 
On the significance of the Voice from the Whirlwind, see 
our Introductory Essay. 

Chapter XXXVIII. 1. answered Job. Though spoken 
to Job, may the first line of verse 2 refer to Elihu? — 2. 
a-darkening (Heb.) — counsel = God's method and princi- 
ples by which He governs the external world? — without 
intelligence (Heb. not knowledge). — 3. man (Heb. manly 
man, Lat. vir.) . — ask (Heb.) . " The Heb. is the usual word 
for ash, and does not (like demand) imply asking with 
authority." Driver. — make me know (Heb.). Does this 
savor of sarcasm? — 4. When I laid Earth's foundations 
(Heb. at my founding the earth) . — 5. if thou knowest, etc. 
Here many commentators, perhaps the majority, would use 
" since " or " seeing that," instead of if, making the lan- 
guage ironical. Sarcasm might befit Nature personified; 
but should we dare impute it to Jehovah ? — See Prov. xxx, 
4. — Had Job pretended to know? 

In verses 4, 5, 6, 7, note the grandeur of the conception 
of the earth as in its origin a temple built by the Architect 
of the Universe, Plato's " Geometer of the Ckies." Note 
too the symmetry of the description in verses 4-15 of 
Earth, Sea, and Light, in their origin: each has four verses; 
each verse is bi-membral; the parallelism is perfect. 

6. foundations (Heb. sockets). — sunk = made to sink. 
" The word foundation here is quite distinct from that in 
verse 4. It means properly the bases of a column, here 
the lower strata on which the earth's surface rests." Cook. 
Pedestals of pillars ? — But Marshall will have it that 
" Creation is conceived of as the construction of a lake- 
dwelling"! — 7. the morning" stars = the highest angels? 
" sons of God " ? regents of the heavenly bodies, as Milton 
makes Uriel "Regent of the Sun"? Plato (Timaeus, 41, 
and Laws, xn, 967) taught that the stars are living beings. 
See Job i, 6; Jude 13; Rev. i, 16, 20; xxii, 16; Par. Lost, 
in, 60, 61, 690 (Himes' ed.). Any trace here of the doc- 
trine of the Music of the Spheres ? See in Act. V, Sc. i, 60- 
62, Mer. of Venice (notes, Sprague's ed.), the lines — 

" There's not the smallest orb which thou behold' st, 
But in his motion like an angel sings, 
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins." 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 221 

— 'Shouted, etc. See Ezra iii, 11, 12; Par. Lost, vn, 557- 
574 (Himes' ed. ) ; Milton's Hymn on the 'Nativity (Notes 
in Sprague's Masterpieces, st. 12, p. 247.) 

" Such music as 'tis said, Before was never made, 
But when of old the sons of morning sung, 

While the Creator great His constellations set, 
And the well-balanced world on hinges hung, 

And cast the dark foundations deep, 

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep." 

— 8. new-born. From Chaos? — 9. mist. Genesis ii, 6. — 
dark cloud. The Hebrew word (araphel) , which we trans- 
late dark cloud, appears to be a compound, made up of 
words meaning cloud and darkness. Gesenius. — 10. brake, 
etc. (Heb.) = broke a coast line, made a boundary of broken 
rocks at the sea's edge ? So Driver arid most commentators ; 
but Conant pronounces such interpretation " ingenious but 
fanciful." — 11. Rollers' pride (Heb.) — pride of the rolling 
billows. Compare the account in Gen. i, 1-9, and the the- 
ories of the geologists. As to imagery, compare lines in 
verses 5-11 with those just cited from Par. Lost; also 
Goethe's Faust, Prolog inv Himmel; also Ps. xxiv.— 12. 
since thy days (Heb. from thy days) = since thy days 
began ? — Dayspring == dawn. — 13. wings (Heb. ) = edges, 
skirts? — 14. clay. Used as we use wax? — stand forth, 
etc. " Subject wanting," says Siegfried. Gesenius renders 
thus: "And (all things) stand forth as in splendid at- 
tire." Like garments stiff with needle-work? rich substan- 
tial fabric? gorgeous embroidery? — 15. their light = dark- 
ness? Their emphatic? See xxiv, 13-17. Irony here? — 
uplifted arm = arm uplifted to strike violently? — 16. 
sea's springs = submarine fountains (Marshall)? "The 
great Beep " was imagined to be a vast " abyss of waters 
under the earth " ; its " fountains," channels thence up 
to the sea proper? See Ps. xxiv, 2; cxxxvi, 6; Gen. xlix, 
25; Exod. xx, 4; Gen. vii 2 11. — 17. Death's gates, etc. 
Nodes at que dies patet atri janua Ditis, all night, and all 
day too, the door of gloomy Dis is open. Mneid, vi, 127. — 
Death = the grave ? the " underworld " ? Hades ? Tartarus ? 
Sheol deep down in the earth under the seas (Driver) ? the 
"death lord"? "King of Terrors" (xviii, 14; xxvi, 5)? 
Says Davidson, "Death is personified; it is Sheol, the place 
of the dead 2 chap, xxviii, 22. This is a lower deep than 



222 THE BOOK OP JOB 

the recesses of the sea." — laid bare (Heb.) = uncovered, 
revealed. This is probably more accurate than the 
" opened " of the Com. Vers. — Death-shade = the " Shadow 
of Death " = " the blackness of darkness " ? So iii, 5 ; x, 
21, 22; xxiv, 17; xxvi, 6; xxviii, 3, 22. Lat. Erebus? — 18. 
comprehended (Heb. turned thy attention to and under- 
stood). So the E. V. — broad spaces (Heb. breadths, plu- 
ral). — declare, etc. There is doubt whether "declare" 
refers to what precedes, or to what follows — 20. take it, 
etc. = take it (either light or darkness) to its supposed 
border ? — mansion's paths = paths to its mansion ? — 21. 
Know'st thou, etc. The R. V. with Umbreit, Noyes, Her- 
der, Rosenmiiller, Wemyss, Davidson, Conant, Genung, Ray- 
mond. Gilbertj 0. Cary, Moulton, Jacob Cooper, Marshall, 
Driver, Peake, Jennings, Royds, all make this verse affirma- 
tive and sarcastic, reading, Thou knowest, etc. May it not 
well be so, if regarded as the voice merely of external Na- 
ture? But to those who take it to be the utterance of the 
Infinite One, a voice not limited by physical conditions, 
the idea of irony or sarcasm would naturally be repugnant. 
E. g., Prof. Tayler Lewis declares, " The idea of irony here 
is insupportable." Barnes concurs. — 22, 23. snow — hail 

— battle and war, etc. See Josh, x, 11; Exod. ix, 22-26; 
Ps. xviii, 13. 14. 

4 ' And then came on the frost and snow, 
All on the road from Moscow! " 

Southey's The March to Moscow. — 24. diffused, etc. From 
the East (Conant) ? from its supposed abode (Marshall) ? 

— 25. water-flood — channel (Heb.). The parallelism re- 
quires us to imagine a conduit or channel cut through the 
arch of the heavens, down which the rain-flood pours from 
the celestial ocean (Davidson, Marshall, Driver, Peake, 
etc. ) ? A poetic conception that might plausibly be attri- 
buted to what Milton calls the " dumb Earth " or the world 
of matter personified; but is it well to regard it as the idea 
held by Omniscience? — 27. make the tender grass spring" 
forth (Heb. make the growing place of young grass to 
sprout). — 29. given it birth (Heb.) — 30. hide themselves 
(Heb.). So the Am. Rev.— the deep. Not the "Deep" of 
verse 16? — The face of the deep .. the surface of the 
water that flows under the ice (Peake)? — 31, 32. bands, 
etc. There is much doubt as to the significance of certain 
words here. Instead of bands (Heb. maadannoth) , the 



EXPLANATOEY NOTES 223 

Com. Vers., Noyes, and Barnes read "sweet influences"; 
Conant and Raymond, " soft influences " ; Cheyne, " knots " ; 
O. Cary, " chain " ; Merx, " girdle " ; Genung, " fetters " ; 
the Sept., Kimchi 2 Cook, and Dillmann, " fastenings " ; the 
R. V., Marshall, Jennings and Driver, " cluster." But 
Gesenius and B. Davidson in their lexicons, Rosenmiiller, 
Umbreit, Halsted, A. B. Davidson, Gilbert, Rogers (of 
Drew Theo. Sem.), prefer bands. The Persian poets, Sadi 
and Hafiz, sing of "the bands of the Pleiades"; and 
Tennyson in his first Locksley Hall has, 

11 Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro* the mellow shad©, 
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid." 

— - Orion. Fabled as a giant bound fast in the sky. Some 
identified him with Nimrod " the mighty hunter." See 
Amos v, 8. See ix, 9, and the Class. Diet. — cords = at- 
tractions (Lee)? fetters (Jennings)? — 32. Forth . . . 
bring (Heb. cause to come forth) — Zodiac Signs = the 
twelve, through which the sun seems annually to pass. But 
the interpretation is doubtful. Cheyne renders the Heb. 
(mazzaroth) "moon's watches." — Great Bean=£7rsc& 
Major; variously called " The Dipper," " Septemtriones," 
"The Seven Ploughing Oxen," "The Wagon," "Charles's 
Wain," etc. — her sons (Heb.) =the three stars projecting 
from the " square," sometimes imagined to be three daugh- 
ters following a bier! (Marshall) ? — 35. Here We! (Heb.). 
Electric communication? — 36. dark clouds (marg. read. R. 
V. ) — black thunder-clouds ? The Com. Vers, has " inward 
parts " — sky-forms = atmospheric phenomena ? The Com. 
Vers, has " heart " ; Noyes, Halsted, and the R,. V. have 
"mind," with marg. read, "meteor"; Conant gives 
" spirit "; the Douay, " cock "; Davidson, " cloud-masses "; 
Peake, " meteorological phenomena " ; Jennings, " the soul 
of things." With our rendering, sky-forms, we endeavor to 
preserve the parallelism without tautology. No one is 
satisfied with the Com. Vers, of verse 36; first, because a 
reference to man's " inward parts " is out of place among 
celestial phenomena; and secondly, because the whole drift 
of the speech from the whirlwind is to abase man. In the 
context a semi-intelligence seems to be imputed to the 
clouds. See xxxvii, 12. — 37. make heaven's bottles prone 
(Heb. cause heaven's bottles to lie down). The bottles of 
course are clouds imagined full of water: emptied, they 
fall flat, collapse. — 41. for the raven, etc. See Luke xii, 
24; Ps. cxlvii, 9; Aurora Leigh, vii; As You Like It, n, 
iii, 43 (Sprague's ed.). 



224 THE BOOK OF JOB 

Chapter XXXIX. 1. rock-goats. Like the ibex or 
chamois ? — 2, 3, 4. We endeavor to translate literally. — 
3. pangs. Metonymy of effect for cause? Conant dissents. 
— • Euripides has the exactly equivalent expression (ripsai 
odina) for cast away pangs. — 5. wild ass . . . swift ass. 
So the Am. Rev. Two words for " ass " in the original ; 
the one, said to denote probably shyness, the other speed. 
Both species shy and swift, the animal is said to be un- 
tamable and exceedingly beautiful. They were hunted with 
relays of horses, as described in Xenophon (Anabasis, i, v, 
2). — bands. Lewis gives "zebra's bands"! — 6. salt land, 
etc. So the R. V. — -7. laugheth at (Heb.). See xxiv, 5. 
See a fine description of the wild ass in Davidson, p. 271. — 
9. wild ox = the gigantic urns (aurochs, of the bison 
genus), interestingly described by Julius Caesar (Bell. Gall., 
VI, 28). The Heb. (reem) in Numb, xxiii, 22, is rendered 
in the marg. read., R. V., ox-antelope. No one retains the 
"unicorn" of the Com. Vers. — aspire (Heb. breathe after). 

— 11. for great (Heb.) = because great is. — labor (Heb.) 
= product of labor ? Note the meton. also in " threshing- 
floor " in 12. — 12. gather in. /. e., the threshed-out grain. 
— 13. Joyously , . wing (Heb. wing of ostriches exults). 

— of love. The Heb. word rendered " of love," or " kindly," 
or " pious," also signifies the " stork " ! Symbolic of love 
of offspring? — 16. treateth harshly . . . without solici- 
tude (Heb.) — 17. hath caused her to forget (Heb.) — 
Nor . . . understanding. Like many other birds, ostriches 
are proverbially foolish; yet note in verse 18 the compen- 
sating quality; specified probably to illustrate "the free- 
dom and resource of the Infinite Mind"! — 19. stallion. 
Prof. Tayler Lewis ventures to translate the Heb. (sus, 
horse) war-horse; for no common horse is meant. — Thun- 
der, etc. All agree that the word here rendered thunder 
is of doubtful significance. The majority of recent scholars 
prefer to define it " shaking," or " quivering," or " trem- 
bling," or " quivering mane," or " terror/' " including the 
iaea of a vehement and terrific movement." We venture, 
with Noyes and Barnes, to retain the word, metaphorical 
of course, of the Com. Vers. It has long been familiar to 
readers, and much admired by men like Carlyle (Heroes 
and Hero-Worship ) , though pronounced " magnificent non- 
sense/ by Peake. ft seems the product of a vivid imagina- 
tion " wreaking thought upon expression." It combines the 
notions of swiftness and force, like Goethe's " Donnergang " 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 225 

in Faust (Prolog im Himmel) , including also the idea of 
flashing, suggested by the waving mane; of quivering or 
shaking, caused by an imagined concussion or even by ex- 
treme excitement; and of the terrifying noise of the neigh- 
ing. Furthermore, the orig. is in form the fern, of the Heb. 
word rendered " thunder " in the last line of verse 25. See 
/ Henry IV, IV, i, 119-122. "Quivering mane" seems a 
long step proseward. — ■ 20. like a locust leap. So the R. 
V. — The glory of his nostrils = the peal of his snort 
(Cheyne) ? his startling and deafening neigh combined with 
the appearance of his nostrils? — terror (Heb.). So the 
Douay Vers. — See in Virgil's Georgics (in, 84 et seq.) , the 
war-horse " rolls beneath his nostrils the gathered fire." 
See Lucretius's De Rerum Natura (v, 29) ; J ere, viii, 16; 
and quotation from Tennyson in note on verses 28-30, post. 
— 21. They paw in the valley (Heb.). There is a strik- 
ing similarity between Virgil's description, just referred to, 
and parts of this passage. — battle array. So B. Davidson 
and Bagster in their lexicons. — 22. face (Heb.) =edge? 
Is sword personified? — 23. quiver, etc. The rider's 
quiver ? — 24. swalloweth the ground. More of " mag- 
nificent nonsense"? — standeth he still (Heb.). This sec- 
ondary meaning of the Heb. is preferred to the " believeth 
he " of the Com. V. So marg. R. V. — 25. Oft as the trum- 
pet he saith, aha! His laughing-snort echoes every bugle 
blast! Many an old cavalry soldier will recognize the un- 
paralleled vividness of this portrayal. — from afar (Heb.) — 
26. intelligence — wise guidance ? — stretcheth . . . wings. 
In annual migration? — ■ 27. command (Heb. mouth). 
Metonymy? — 28. On the rock's tooth (Heb.) — 28, 29. 
See Tennyson's Eagle — 

" He clasps the crag with crooked hands: 
Close to the sun in lonely lands, 
Ringed with the azure world he stands. 

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls: 
He watches from his mountain walls, 
And like a thunderbolt he falls." 

Verse 30. there she! See Luke xvii, 37. — she. As in 
Eng. the Heb. for ' l eagle " is epicene. 

Chapter XL. 2. answer it (Heb.) = answer the series 
of questions in xxxviii and xxxix? — 4. vile (Heb. light; 
L e., of little weight or account). — hand upon my mouth. 
See xxi, 5; xxix, 9. — 5. Once . . . twice = " sundry times; 



226 THE BOOK OF JOB 

referring to what Job had often said in his speeches concern- 
ing the Almighty " ( Davidson ) ? " a general formula for 
repeated utterance" (Lewis)? — no more (Heb. not add) 
= proceed no further., 

The suggestion meets with favor that the two lines of 
verse 2 in this chapter belong properly at the end of Chap, 
xxxix: accordingly they are so placed in the M. R,. B., fol- 
lowing, without a break, verse 30. Then the M. R. B. 
inserts, after " Let him answer it," the " stage direction," 
(A lull in the storm. It all along takes the liberty of 
omitting the prose connecting lines which introduce the 
speeches in the Com. Vers. Instead of such omitted lines, 
it substitutes, as headings, the names of the supposed 
speakers respectively. Thus, above verse 4 of this chapter 
xl, it prefixes the heading, JOB; and, over verse 7, the 
heading, VOICE OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND. At the 
end of verse 5 it inserts (The whirlwind continues. 

Verse 6. Instead of whirlwind, Conant prefers " storm," 
following the old editions of Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, 
and Taverner. — 7. a man = a manly man. See xxxviii, 3. 
In reading or speaking we express the sense by emphasis. — 
ask (Heb. inquire of) ; as in xxxviii, 3. — make me know. 
Irony? — 8. my rights "my lawful due; viz., that I rule 
the world justly" (Driver) ? my essential rectitude (Gesen- 
ius) ? annul my rights make void my justice (Cheyne) ? 

— 9. an arm like God ... a voice like him (Heb.). What 
logic here? — 10. grandeur and sublimity = lofty grand- 
eur? — Glory and beauty =: glorious beauty? Hendiadys? 

— 12. tread the wicked down — beneath them = trample 
them into and under the ground on which they stand ? — 
13. Bind up = shut up (Gesenius) ? wrap with cerements? 

— faces = persons, bodies (Barnes)? countenances? — in 
the Hidden =r " in Sheol, the dark and hidden abode of the 
dead" (Driver) ? "the subterranean place of banishment" 
(Marshall)? the darkness (Gesenius)? — 15. Behemoth 
= the hippopotamus? So Bochart (1663) and all subse- 
quent commentators. Some tell us that the Heb. (bemut, 
" a plural of intensity") is of Egyptian origin (p-ehe-mout, 
i. e., water-ox, or river-ox). "Probably it is an Egyptian 
name Hebraized" (Davidson)? Cheyne remarks, "Neither 
behemoth nor leviathan corresponds exactly to any known 
animal." One gentleman of vivid imagination, Mr. Samuel 
O. Trudell, advances the theory that behemoth is neither 
more nor less than a prophecy of the stationary steam 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 227 

engine; and leviathan, of the steam locomotive! See his 
"A Wonderful Discovery in the Book of Job" (Phila., 
1890). — grass, etc. Including herbage? — ox. "Collec- 
tively for oxen." — 18. limbs. So the R. V., with alterna- 
tive marg. read., "ribs." — 19. prime (Heb reshith — a, 
beginning ; the first in time, rank, or worth ) . Scholars are 
in doubt as to which of the three senses is the true one. 
" Masterpiece of creation/' says Cook. — giveth him a sword 
(Heb.). So Renan, Davidson, Schlottmann, Peake, Jen- 
nings, and Siegfried, after Gesenius; also the Am. Rev. 
But text and interpretation are doubtful. — sword. Some 
of the tusks are long and curved like a sickle. Accordingly 
the name (Greek harpe) "sickle" is used in such connec- 
tion in the Theriacon (line 566) of Nicander (of Colophon, 
about 135 B.C.), quoted by Rosenmiiller and Barnes. — 20. 
play, etc. He is not carnivorous? — 21. lotuses = lotus 
trees (Noyes, Barnes, Lee, Schultens, Marshall, Driver, and 
the R. V.) ? shady trees (Com. Vers.) ? Egyptian water 
lilies, not lote trees (Conant) ? — 22. weave (Heb.) — 23. 
violent be, etc. Text and sense uncertain. — Jordan break 
forth (Heb.). So in substance the recent versions. As 
the animal is not known there, Jordan may stand for any 
river? — 24. in his eyes (Heb.) =in his sight, or when 
the monster is watching. — 24. snares, etc. " Snare is rope 
or line," says Marshall ; " but there may be a harpoon 
attached " ! Gesenius gives, " With hooks pierce through 
the nose." 

Chapter XLI. Commentators discover a vein of humor 
in the first five verses of this chapter. — 1. hook. R. V. 
" fish hook." — Leviathan = crocodile ? See iii, 8 ; Par. 
Lost, i, 200-206 (Sprague's ed. ) ; note on verse 15 above. 
— press down, etc. So the recent vers. — 2. rush-rope (Heb. 
rope of rushes ) . — ring. The R. V. give " hook," with marg. 
reading " spike." — 4. a covenant cut, etc. = making a bind- 
ing compact with thee. See note on xxxi, 1. — 6. companies 
(Heb. partnerships) — guilds, bands (of fishermen) — 
merchants (Heb. Canaanites) =Tyrian, Phoenician, or kin- 
dred merchants of antiquity. See Is. xxiii, 8 ; Prov. xxxi, 
24, where " merchant " is " Canaanite." — 8. Thou'lt not do 
more (Heb. thou wilt not add) = thou'lt not do it again. 
— 9. hope of him (Heb.) =hope of subduing or capturing 
him. — Not be cast down, etc. = will not one be cast down 
even at sight of him (Com. and R. V.) — 10. None so auda- 
cious as, etc. = none is so daring that he will dare to stir 



228 THE BOOK OP JOB 

him up. — 11. Who hath preceded me, etc. = who has first 
given to me so that I ought to repay him. Note the con- 
densation and expansion, three Heb. words rendered into 
thirteen English! For the thought, see Rom. xi, 35. — all 
these heavens (Heb.) =a the whole heaven. — 12. fame of 
mighty deeds (Heb.). — 13. his garment's face =his sur- 
face covering, i. e., armor of scales (Conant) ? — uncover 
(Heb.) = strip off. — double bridle (Heb.) = double jaws 
or rows of teeth (Gesenius, Noyes, Conant, Cook, Delitzsch, 
Ewald, Dillmann, Davidson, O. Cary, Marshall, Driver, 
Genung) ? — Nicander (Theriacon, 234) speaks of the 
Chalinus (bridle) of a serpent's teeth. — 14. circuits ... a 
terror (Heb.). — 15. Strong shields (Heb.) = shield-like 
scales. — 16. They join, one on another (Heb.) — 17. Man 
to his brother (Heb.) = scale to scale. — they are glued. 
So Gesenius. — -18—21. Phenomena of phosphorescence ? Out- 
breathed spray sparkling in the sunshine? — 18. neesings 
= sneezings. Onomatopoetic ? The vocalization of the Heb. 
word {atisha, from the Arabic) is supposed to echo the 
Bound! See "neeze" in Midsummer Night's Dream, n, i, 
56 (Sprague's ed.), and note on p. 24 of Sprague's Master- 
pieces in Eng. Lit. — flash forth light (Heb. cause light to 
shine). So the R. V. — eyelids (Heb. eyelashes). Hero 
" put for the eyes themselves/* says Gesenius. See on iii, 
9. — his eyes, etc. The reddish eyes of the crocodile, com- 
ing up to the surface of the water, glow, it is said, like the 
rising sun ! Hence the symbol of dawn in hieroglyphics ? — 
20. rushes. So the R. V., which insert the word " burning." 
A fire of reeds or rushes under the pot? — 22. Terror 
danceth to his face (Heb.) — 24. nether millstone. 
Harder than the upper ? — 25. At lifting up himself (Heb.) 
■ — 'lose themselves (Heb.) = are beside themselves, "lose 
their heads " ! — from = because of. — 26. Lay at him sword 
(Heb. in putting sword to him). The participle here is 
like that in the " ablative absolute " in Lat. — cannot hold 
(Heb. will not stand good. So Gesenius and B. Davidson 
in their lexicons) =it cannot avail. So the R. V. — Spear 
— Javelin! Shall we " read between the lines/' " Put spear 
to him; hurl javelin at him; it will not avail; for his mail 
is impenetrable " ? In place of " pointed shaft/' tautology 
which the R. V. adopt, we give the marg. read., coat of mail, 
the " habergeon " of the Com. Vers. — 28. The bow's son. 
See the personification in verse 17 above; also in V, 7. — 29. 
Clubs (Heb.). So the R. V.— 30. ,sharp potsherds (Heb.) 



EXPLANATORY NOTES 229 

— a threshing- wain (Heb. sharp-pointed = a threshing- 
sledge with teeth of stone or iron on the under side). So 
R. V. " Such sledges are still in use in Syria, drawn by 
oxen." Driver. — 31. deep = deep river? deep sea? Is it 
churned to white foam, or is it phosphorescent ? — hoary 
(Heb.). Catullus, Ovid, and Apollonius (of Rhodes) speak 
of the sea as " hoary": Longfellow tells us of "Old 
Ocean's beard of snow " : Homer makes the sea " hoary " 
nigh shore, but " wine-colored " farther out. — 34. All lofty 
he beholdeth, etc. A disdainful look? — sons of pride. 
See on xxviii, 8. 

Chapter XLII. 2. purpose cannot be cut off from thee 
(Heb.) =2 there is no purpose of thine which thou canst not 
carry out. — 3. a-hiding (Heb.) = obscuring (Conant) ? 
hiding with words (Gesenius) ? — 4. Hear, now, and I will 
speak. This utterance is assigned to Job in the M. R. B. 
But the pronoun / is expressed in its full form (Heb. 
(anochi) and is emphatic. He is silenced, subdued, over- 
whelmed. In his self-abhorrent mood, humiliated to the 
last degree in dust and ashes, is it possible that he would 
be so egotistic? — 5. mine eye doth see. What did he see? 

— 6. abhor I = abhor myself (the LXX, the Vulg., Sym- 
machus, Tyndale 2 Coverdale, Taverner, Cranmer, Common 
and Rev. Vers.) ? abhor (retract or repudiate) my words 
(marg. read, of R. V., Ewald, Dillmann, Gesenius, Umbreit, 
Budde, Conant, Davidson, Driver, Peake, Jennings, etc. ) ? — 
As to his words, see the last part of verse 7 ; also of verse 8. 

At the close of verse 34 in the preceding chapter, the 
M. R. B. inserts as a " stage direction " { The storm begins 
to abate. Over verse 2 in this chapter xlii, it places the 
heading JOB. Over verse 3, this heading: VOICE OUT OF 
THE WHIRLWIND (retreating). Again, over the second 
line of 3, it inserts the heading JOB. Over the second line 
of verse 4, it inserts VOICE OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND 
{more distant). At the end of verse 6, it places the direc- 
tion {The storm ceases. 

Verse 10. turned the captivity of Job upon his praying, 
etc. Note this turning-point in Job's fortunes. Had there 
been a taint of selfishness in his prayers at first, and had it 
vanished now? See on this point Job i, 6; and see Dr. T. T. 
Munger's The Two Prayers of Job; also our Introductory 
Essay. — 11. piece of money ( kesita = " properly, some- 
thing weighed out," says Gesenius ) . Value unknown. 
" Heavier than the shekel, and containing indeed about four 



230 THE BOOK OF JOB 

shekels." See Gen. xxiii, 16, 19; Josh, xxiv, 32. Jemima 
==: a little dove ? — Keziah = cassia, or cinnamon? — Keren- 
happuch = twisted flask (or horn) of eye-paint? See 
2 Kings, ix, 30; Jere. iv, 30. — 15. gave them an inher- 
itance among their brethren. See 'Numb, xxvii, 1-9; 
Shakes. Henry V, I, ii, 98-100. 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 

AUTHORS AND WORKS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO. 

Year. 

Addis, W. E., The Book of Job, annotated, in 

Temple Bible 1902 

American Revision Committee's Newly Revised 

Edition of the whole Bible. Fine 1901 

Antonis, T., Commentary. Held that Job typified 

the Christian Church 1702 

Barnes, Albert, Book of Job, translated, copiously 

annotated; very valuable 1881 

Budde, C, Hand Commentary on the Old Testa- 
ment 1896 

Calvin, John, Sermons, etc. Ed. pub. in 1887 . . 1536 

Cary, Otis, Rhythmical Trans. Argues plaus- 
ibly that Job was King Uzziah 1898 

Carlyle, Thomas, Heroes and Hero Worship, Sar- 
tor Resartus, French Revolution 1833 + 

Caryl, J., Exposition of the Book of Job 1669 

Cheyne, T. K. 2 Commentary on Job and Solomon 1887 

Conant, T. J., Translation, Commentary, Notes, 

three parallel columns ed. ; very fine 1857 

Cook, F. C., annotated Book of Job in the Bible 

Commentary ; very learned 1878 

Davidson, A. B., Book of Job, with Notes, Intro- 
duction, etc. in Cambridge Bible; excellent 1889 

Delitzsch, Franz, Commentary on the Book of Job 1864 + 

Dillmann, C. F. A., Commentary 1891 

De Wette, W. M. L., Contributions, Commentary 

Manual on Old Testament, etc 1806 + 

Douay Bible, Translation from the Vulgate 1610 

Driver, S. R., The Book of Job. Introduction 

and Brief Annotations, Rev. V.; very good. . 1906 

Eichhorn, J. G., Introduction to the Old Testa- 
ment 1780 + 

English Revised Version of the whole Bible 1884 + 

231 



232 THE BOOK OP JOB 

Year. 
Ewald, G. H. A., Translation, Commentary, Co- 
pious Notes; a high authority 1859 + 

Froude, J. A., Short Studies on Great Subjects . . 1867 
Genung, J. F., The Epic of the Inner Life. Valu- 
able Introductory Study 1891 

Gilbert, G. H., The Poetry of Job. Aiming to 

reproduce the rhythm of the orig.; good. . . . 1889 
Good, J. M., Annotated Translation. Introduc- 
tion. Notes ,. . .: 1812 

frrotius, Hugo, Annotations on the Old Testament 1644 + 

Halsted, 0. S., Translation 1875 

Hirzel, L., Commentary 1839 

Hitzig, F., Commentary 1836 + 

Jennings, William, The Dramatic Poem of Job, a 
metrical translation with notes. Up to date. 

Very well done 1912 

Jerome, Saint, Translation of Bible into Latin, 

the Vulgate nearly A. D. 400 

Kennicott, B., Commentary 1776 + 

Kimchi ( or Kamchi ) , David, Hebrew Grammar, 

Dictionary, Commentaries 1220 

Lee, S., Translation, Essay, Notes 1837 

Lewis, Tayler, Rhythmical Version of Job, Com- 
mentary, Copious Notes of much value .... 1833 + 
Lowth, R., Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the 

Hebrews 1753 

Luther, Martin, Translation of Bible into German 1532 + 

LXX = The Septuagint, q. v. infra. 

Marshall, J. T., Commentary and Notes, part of 

Am. Com. on the O. T. Well done 1904 

Merx, E. O. A., The Poem of Job 1887 + 

Moulton, R. G., The Book of Job in the M. R. B., 

With Introduction, etc. Valuable 1897 

Munger, Theodore T., The Two Prayers of Job. 

Very suggestive 1899 

Noyes, G. R., Translation and Notes. Scholarly. 1827 + 

Patrick, S., Paraphrase of Job 1697 

Peake, A. S., Part of New Century Bible, Book of 

Job. Copiously annotated; very good 1905 

Peloubet, F. A. 2 Annotated Edition of the Book 

for Sunday School use. Devout 1906 

Raymond, R. W., Essays and Metrical paraphrase 

(in three-line rhyming stanza) 1878 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 233 

Year. 

Rosenmiiller, E. F. K., Annotated Commentary 

(in Latin, very learned) 1823 + 

Royds, Thomas Fletcher, Job and the Problem of 

Suffering. A valuable analysis. Up to date. 1912 

Schultens, A., Commentary on the Book of Job. 

Elaborate 1737 + 

Septuagint, Greek Vers, of the Heb. Scriptures. . 380 B. G. 

Siegfried, C., Critical Ed. of Book of Job (with 
Notes trans, by Brunnow). Polychrome edi- 
tion 1893 

Trudell, S. O., A Wonderful Discovery in the 
Book of Job (viz., that Behemoth and Levia- 
than are respectively the stationary and self- 
propelling steam engine of the present day! ) . 
The Heb. text and Vulg. translated 1900 

Umbreit, F. W. K., Translation and Exposition 

of the Book of Job 1824 

Warburton, W., The Divine Legation of Moses. 
He held that Job represents the Jewish peo- 
ple in their Captivity, and Elihu the author 
of the book 1741 

Watson, R. A., Notes in the Expositor's Bible . . 1892 

Wemyss, T., Translation, Notes, Essay 1839 

Young, R., Translation of the Whole Bible 1863 + 

Zockler, O., Annotations of Prof. Tayler Lewis's 

Translation of Book of Job 1874 



INDEX 



229. 
166, 



Abaddon, 116, 198, 203, 210. 

abhor I, 159, 229. 

accept faces = show partiality, 

8b, 87, 138, 179, 214. 
acquaint thee, 110, 193. 
Adam-like, 130, 211. 
Addis, W. E., 181. 
Adjutrix Diaboli, 166. 
advocatus Diaboli, 17, 18. 
yEneid, Vergil's passim. 
after him will all men draw, 

108, 191. 
AHA! he saith, 158, 225. 
Alcestis, of Euripides, 191. 
Allah Akbar, 216. 
allegory? 40, 41, 53. 
alliteration, 82, 176. 
altruistic prayer, 160, 
Anabasis, Xenophon's, 

224. 
anacoluthon, 66 (verse 

169, 218. 
anger, 101, 142, 185, 216. 
apparition, 66, 168. 
Arab, a genuine one's pride, 

182. 
Aristophanes, cited, 173. 
arm, symbol of might, 109, 148, 

154, 191, 221. 
Arm, the Man of, 109, 191. 
arm, uplifted for violence, 148, 

221. 
arrow = arrow wound, 136, 213. 
arrows, the Almighty's, 69. 
(As) liveth God! 117, 
ashes, 61, 159, 166. 
ash-heap, 61, 166. 
asp's poison, 103, 104, 
assembly, judicial, 82, 



214, 
19), 



199. 



188. 
176. 



ass, wild, 82, 113, 151, 176, 

224. 
asses, wild and swift, 151, 224. 
Augustine, St. Aurelius, 166. 
Aurora Borealis ? 147, 219. 



Baal, temple 
back=west? 
112, 193. 



of, 216. 
(f orward=east ? ) , 



balance= scales (E. Rit.), 69, 

127, 170, 209. 
bands of Pleiades, 150, 222, 
223. 

swift ass, 151, 224. 
A., commentator, 4, 



Sheol, 98, 149, 184, 



185. 



bands, of 
Barnes, 

passim. 
bars of 

221. 
bars, of skin, 99, 
Bates, Prof. Arlo, quoted, 
battalions, numberless, 116, 
battle, imagery of, 95, 105, 

183, 225. 
Bear, Great, = Ursa Major, 

150, 173, 220. 
Bear, sons of, 150, 223. 
before, meaning? 66, 169. 
Behemoth, Egyptian word? 

226. 
Behemoth, fancied steam 

gine! 226. 
beholders' place, meaning ? 

214. 
Belial, sense of? 137, 214. 
Bentley, Richard, quoted, 3. 
Bildad, 21, 26, 74, 98, 

200+. 
birds, far-sighted, 120, 

202, 225. 
Blair, Hugh, quoted, 56. 
blast, eastern, 91, 119, 181, 
blood, uncovered, 96, 183. 
boils = leprosy? 61, 166. 
bones, pains in? skeleton? 

172. 



164. 
197. 
153, 

77, 



155, 

en- 

138, 

196, 
154, 

201. 

73, 



book=register ? 102, 
above. 



186. 
Evolution ? 



88, 116, 180, 



born from 

53+. 
born of woman, 

197. 
bosses, 87, 93, 179, 182. 
bottles = clouds, 151, 223. 
bottles= wine-skins, 132, 212. 
bottom of the sea, 144, 217. 
bowing knees, 65, 
bow's son = arrow, 
brake a boundary, 



168. 
158, 
148, 



228. 
221. 



235 



236 



INDEX 



br ass = copper? 120, 155, 158, 

202. 
breath, 72, 73, 77, 107. 
breath:= airiness, relief? 133, 

212. 
breath = emptiness, vanity? 108, 

118, 191, 200. 
breathe spirit, life, soul? 107, 

131, 174, 190, 212. 
breath of God, 66, 93, 131, 145, 

212. 
bridle,' 125, 207. 
bridle, double, 157, 228. 
bring a god in the hand, 84, 

177. 
broad spaces, earth's, 149, 222. 
brood=gang of scamps, 125, 

207. 
brooks, deceptive, 70, 171. 
brotherhood, the human, 128, 

210 
brow (by metonymy) = horn, 95, 

183. 
Browning, E. B., quoted, 180. 
Browning, Robert, quoted, 16, 

170, 191. 
bucklers, 93, 182. 
Bunyan, John, 19; quoted, 169. 
Burke, Edmund, quoted, 185. 
Burns, Robert, quoted, 196. 
Bushnell, Horace, 220, 229. 
Buzite, 131, 212. 
Byron, Lord, quoted, 168, 170, 

181. 
Canaanites = merchants, 156, 

227. 
captivity, turned, 160, 229. 
caravans, 71, 171. 
Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 10, 

166, 171, 175. 
cast = cast lots, 71, 171. 
Catullus, 216. 
Chaldeans, 59, 166. 
Chamber, the cyclone's, 145, 

218. 
Chambers of the South, 77, 174. 
changes and hosts, 81, 175. 
changest countenance, 90, 181. 
Cheyne, T. K., quoted, 200, 209, 

226. 
circle bound, 117, 198. 
circuits of teeth, 157, 228. 
cities desolate, 93, 182, 195. 
clap hands, in mockery, 119, 

201. 
clay, as wax, 148, 221. 



clay houses, 66, 169. 
clay, in abundance, 119, 201. 
clay, symbol of frailty, 87, 179. 
Clephane, E. C, quoted, 50. 
clods of the valley, 108, 171. 
coat of mail, 158, 228. 
Coleridge, S. T., quoted, 56. 
coming up; what? 144, 217. 
complaint, of? or to? 105, 189. 
Conant, T. J., 3, passim; often 

quoted ; 
Cook, F. C, 4, passim; often 

quoted; 
Cooper, J, 6; quoted, 187. 
cords, Orion's, 150, 223. 
Council, of God, 14, 18, 91, 181. 
counsel of God, 147, 220. 
covenant, cut (=made), 127, 

156, 209, 227. 
cover not my blood! 96, 183. 
Coverdale, Miles, quoted, 190. 
Cowper, "William, quoted, 2. 
crocodile, 1564- , 227+. 
curdled milk, 104, 122, 204. 
curse, 63, 67, 169. 
cut=made with cutting, 127, 

209. 
cyclone, 145, 147. 



darkened, not by the sun, 127, 

209. 
daughters of Job, 14, 161, 230. 
Davidson, A. B., 4, passim, 

much quoted, 1964-. 
dawn, symbol of? 157, 228. 
days, of God; meaning? 113, 

194. 
daysman, 79, 174. 
Death; personified? 121, 149, 

203, 221. 
Death, Firstborn of, 99, 185. 
Death's gates, 149, 221. 
Death-shade, 63, 114, 138, 149, 

167, 195, 202. 
Deep = subterranean abyss? 121, 

149, 203, 221. 

Deep = sea, ocean, great river, 

150, 159, 222, 229. 
Delitzsch, Franz, 1564- , passim. 
Demogorgon, 168. 

depravity (inherent) ? 20, 116, 

197. 
depths of deity, 82, 176. 
desolate, places, 64, 93, 167, 

195. 



INDEX 



237 



Destruction, personified. 121, 

203. 
devices, ill sense of, 108, 190. 
Diaboli Adjutrix, 166. 
dig through houses, 114, 195. 
dittographv? 104, 188. 
double bridle, 157, 227. 
double folds to Wisdom, 82, 176. 
Dragons Leviathan? 63, 167, 

174, 199. 
dreams as symptoms? 73, 172. 
Driver, S. R., 4, passim, often 

quoted. 



eagle, 78, 153, 225. 
Eagle, The, Tennyson's, 225. 
Earth, our mother, 60, 166. 
Earth, as a Temple, 147, 148, 

220. 
Earth, wings of, 148, 221. 
east, west, north, south, 112, 

193 
East Wind=sirocco? 91, 119, 

181, 201. 
egg, white of, tasteless ! 70. 
eggs, of ostrich, 152. 
Egypt = Rahab (symbolical) ? 77, 

174. 
Egyptian Ritual, 209. 
Elihu, 27, 131, 212, 213, 219. 
Eliphaz, 20, 21, 22, 65, 108, 

170, 191. 
euphemisms, 60, 64, 81, 150, 

167. 
euthanasia, 46, 196, 189. 
Evolution, Milton's idea, 42. 
Evolution, spiritual, 51, 52, 53. 
Evolution, keynote, first spoken ? 

51, 53. 
Evolution, universal; first taught 

by St. Paul? 43-51. 
external Nature personified? 32- 

37, 219, 220. 
eyelashes of Morn, 63, 167. 
eyelids of the Morn, 157, 167, 

228. 
eyes of Leviathan, symbolic ? 

157, 228. 
eyes roll or flash, 92, 182. 
eyes = sight (figuratively) ? 156, 

227. 
eyes waste away, 83, 97, 177, 

184. 
face accept or lift up = show par- 
tiality, 86, 87, 138, 179, 214. 
face hideth, 139, 214. 



face of food, 65, 167. 
face of garment, 157, 228. 
face of sword, 153, 225. 
faint, heart made, 112, 194. 
falcon's eye, 120, 202, 203. 
Faust, Goethe's, 23 (note). 
fear = piety? 109, 122, 191. 
fear, feared a fear, 65, 168. 
Fear of the Lord, 109, 122, 147, 

191, 219. 
fine = refine, 120, 202. 
fire not blown, 105, 189. 
fire consumeth to Abaddon, 116, 

128, 210. 
fire of God= lightning? 59, 165. 
firmament, supposed solid, 146, 

219. 
first man born, 91, 181. 
First-born of Death, 99, 185. 
flash, thunder's, 149. 
flesh, take in the teeth, 87, 179. 
flood, as a foundation? 110, 

192. 
Flood," the Deluge? 110, 192. 
flood = lake, inland sea? 89, 180. 
for=because (of), 102, 119, 

187, 202, 210. 
forward=east? 112, 193. 
foundation, a flood, 110, 192. 
foundation, Earth's, 147, 220. 
four vast regions? 121, 203. 
frenzied utterances? 5, 71, 95, 

207, 208. 
frequentative sense, 103, 187. 
from=away from, apart from, 

102, 187. 
from my flesh; meaning? 102, 

187. 
from = by reason of, 140, 158, 

215, 228. 
Froude, J. A., quoted, 200, 204. 



gall, of asps, 103, 188. 

gate, seat of tribunal, 67, 122, 

169, 204, 210. 
Gates of Death, 149, 221. 
gathered = decently buried, 115, 

119, 196, 201. 
Genung, J. F., 4, 11, 26 

(quoted). 
Gesenius, F. H. W., much 

quoted, passim. 
gesture, for omitted word? 115, 

119, 196, 201. 
Giant Shades, 116, 198. 
Gilbert, G. E., 2. 



238 



INDEX 



girdle, 85, 178. 

glass, gold and, 121, 203. 

gnawers = p ains ? 125, 208. 

goats of the rock, 151, 224. 

god, an idol? 84, 177. 

Goethe, J. W., quoted, 24 

(note). 
Goethe's Mephistopheles, 15, 24. 
gold and glass, 121, 203. 
Gold, from the north; meaning? 

147, 219. 
grave= sepulchre, 81. 
Grave = Sheol? 90, 172, 181, 

189. 
graven in the rock, 102, 186. 
Graves = cemetery ? 96, 184. 
Great Bear, constellation, 77, 

150, 173, 223. 
grief, demonstrative, 62, 119, 

166. 
grief:=pain, 49, 166. 
grind at the mill^. 128, 210. 
guided, to safety, 108, 191. 



hand; taken for a god? 84, 177. 
hand of the sword, 68, 169. 
hand, palm of the, 133, 212. 
hand, to take approvingly, 76, 

173. 
hand, without, 138, 214. 
hand=pressure? Ill, 193. 
hangeth Earth on nothing, 117, 

198. 
hardened=hardened himself, 76, 

173. 
hard-of-day=faring badly, 126, 

209. 
harpies, Homer's, 119, 201. 
hawk, soaring, migrating, 153, 

125. 
head of the stars, 109, 192. 
heart, made faint, 112, 194. 
heart, meaning in Hebrew? 75, 

76, 84, 86+, 177. 
Hebrew conciseness, 68, 115, 

157, 169, 228. 
heights, ocean's, 76, 173. 
hendiadys, 81, 121, 175, 203, 

218. 
herd; conscious of what? 144, 

217. 
hid-away, the, 121, 203. 
Hidden, the, 155, 226. 
high regions, 116, 197. 
hippopotamus. Behemoth? 155, 

226. 



hoarded, treasury, 129, 210. 
hoary, the ocean, 159, 229. 
Holy, the; meaning? 67, 169. 
Holy One, the, 70. 
hook=fish-hook? 156, 227. 
Horace, Horatius Flaccus, 169. 
horn, brow ornament, 95, 183. 
horse, the war-horse, 153, 224. 
house, a spider's, 75, 173. 
household^ body of servants? 

57, 165. 
houses, of clay, 66, 169. 
Humboldt, Alex, von, 219. 
hunger-bitten, 99. 



idolatry, 129, 210. 

iambic verse, 5. 

incoherences, Job's, 5, 71+, 179, 

202, 206, 208+, 210. 
influences of the Pleiades, 150. 

223. 
in hand, a god! 84, 177. 
inheritance by women, 161, 230. 
in cme = unchangeable, 112, 194. 
interruptions? 107, 115, 187, 

190, 196. 
interpolations? 188, 195. 
irony, 83, 116, 177, 198, 220+. 
irony, Indian, 181. 

jackals, 127, 209. 

Jemima, Job's daughter, 161, 

230. 
Job's greatness, 14. 
Job's brain disordered? 5, 71+, 

170, 171+, 208+. 
judgment; meaning? 74, 143, 

173, 219. 
Judgment of Osiris, 209. 
just with God; meaning? 66, 76, 

173. 



keepeth watch over tomb, 108, 

191. 
Kennicott, B., 200. 
Keren-Happuch, daughter, 161, 

230. 
keynote (spiritual evolution), 

53+. 
Keziah, daughter, 161, 230. 
King of Terrors, 99, 185. 
kissed? which? how? 129, 210. 
knees ready, 64, 167. 
Kurds; of Chaldean ancestry? 

166. 



INDEX 



239 



laid up, times, 113, 194. 

lain in wait, 128, 209. 

Land of the Living, 121, 203. 

Landmarks remove 1 113, 195. 

laughing-stock, 84, 177. 

lay at him sword, 158, 228. 

lead, melted and poured, 102, 

186. 
left = left hand = north? 112, 193. 
leprosy, black? 127, 209. 
let shut up, 82, 176. 
Leviathan (fabled monster ?) 63, 

117, 167, 199. 
Leviathan=crocodile? 156+, 

227. 
Lewis, Tayler, quoted, 175, 

176+. 
lift to; meaning? 106, 189. 
Lifted-up-of-Face, 109, 192. 
Light=the sun, 129, 210. 
light, dwelling-place of, 149. 
lightning, path of, 149. 
lightning=flashing sword? 105, 

189. 
loathe (what?), 73, 172. 
locust, leap as a, 153, 225. 
lookest at me! 126, 208. 
loose, let upon me, 79, 175. 
lotuses, 156, 227. 
Lowell, J. R., quoted, 28. 
Lowth, Robert, 8. 
lucid hours, 201+, 204-f, 209+. 
Lucretius, quoted, 166. 
Luther, Martin, 12. 
lye= alkalized water? 78, 174. 



Magistrates, 128, 129, 210. 

merchandize, make, 71, 171. 

Man-of-Arm, 109, 191. 

man of lips, 81, 176. 

man to his brother, 157, 228. 

man = a manly man, 147, 154, 

226. 
mantle, of mist, 148, 221. 
Marshall, J. T., 4, 39, passim; 

quoted, 194, 196, 220+. 
Mazzaroth=Zodiac Signs? 223. 
meeting, house of, 126, 208. 
melting=in dissolution? 70, 

170. 
Mephistopheles, 23 (note). 
Messianic? 95, 183. 
Mezentius, 177. 
migration of birds, 153, 225. 
Milton, quoted, 14, 36, 42, 221. 
Milton's Samson, 210. 



Milton's Paradise Lost, 42, 53, 

passim. 
Mind, of the Universe? 41. 
mining operations, 111+. 
mirror, molten, 146, 219. 
Modern Reader's Bible, 17++. 
molded (moulded), formed, 133, 

212. 
monster, of the sea, 73, 172. 
Morning's eyelashes, 63, 167. 
Morn, eyelids of, 157, 228. 
moth (or spider?), 169, 201. 
mother Earth, 60, 166. 
Moulton, Richard G., 8, 29, 

passim. 
mourning, seven days of? 62, 

167. 
mouth=loud voice, 101, 186. 
Muhlenberg's " I would not live 

alway," 172. 
multitude of waters, 109, 192. 
Munger, T. T., 6, 39. 
Music of the Spheres? 220. 
Mystery of undeserved Suffer- 
ing, 22 to 40. 
mystical numbers and names, 40, 

suggesting Allegory? 

Naamathite, 166. 

neck, rusheth with, 93, 182. 

neesings, 157, 228. 

nest=family home, 123, 205. 

nether millstone, 228. 

Newton, Thomas, 42. 

North, over empty space, 117, 

198. 
north, seat of Lucifer? 219. 
north, splendor from, 147, 221. 
Northern Aurora? 221. 
nostrils anger, 66, 168, 185. 
nostrils, of war-horse, 153, 225. 
Noyes, G. R., quoted, 56, 186. 
number, the years', 182, 183. 
numbered years, 96, 183. 

oath, Hebrew, 117, 199. 

Oaths and Imprecations, 12 7+, 

209+. 
Ocean; what ocean? 76, 173+. 
of=some of, 82, 176. 
oh that=(Heb.) who'll give? 82, 

90, 176, 181, 204+. 
on nothing, hangeth Earth, 117, 

198. 
onomatopoeia (neesings), 157, 

228. 
Ophir = gold, 110, 193. 



240 



INDEX 



Ophir; where? 121, 193. 
Orion, 77, 150, 173, 223. 
Osiris, Judgment of, 209. 
ostrich, 152, 209, 224. 
ostrich-brood, 127, 209. 
ostrich wing, l v 52, 224. 
ostrich, voice of, 127, 209. 
outcasts, 124+, 207. 
ox, wild, 152, 224. 



pain, = grief? 94, 183. 

pain, in Sheol ? 91, 181. 

palate = roof of mouth? 103, 

188. 
palate=taste, sense? 133, 171, 

212. 
palm, tree (Gr. phoinix), 205. 
palm, of hand, 144, 217. 
Paradise Lost, 42, 53, passim. 
parallelism in Heb, poetry, 8, 

passim. 
parallelism, introverted, 119, 

201. 
participle, emphatic, 87, 105, 

179 189. 
path, of miner, 120, 202+. 
Peace, chamber of, 169. 
Peake, A. S., 4 (note), passim-. 
perfect in knowledge; who? 141, 

216. 
personification, 67, 157, 205+. 
Phoenix, mythical bird, 123, 

205. 
phosphorescence? 159, 229. 
pillars,, heaven's, 117, 198. 
pipe, 106, 127, 189, 209. 
pit = the grave? 134, 135. 
pit= Sheol? 135. 
place = stop, lodgment? 96, 183. 
Plato, on stars as living, 220, 

41. 
Pleiades, bands of, 150, 176, 

223+. 
Pleiades, making of, 77, 174. 
poison drinketh? 69, 170. 
Pope, Alexander, quoted, 5, 49. 
Pope's translation of Homer, 3. 
possessions; meaning? 97, 184. 
prayers, Job's two, 160, 229. 
pride, sons of, 120, 159, 202, 

229. 
prince, a royal person? 130, 

211. 
prince=tyrant? 108, 190. 
produce=yield of soil, etc., 128, 

209. 



Prometheus Unbound ( Shel- 
ley's), 168. 

proverbial expressions, 61, 73, 
75, 82, 172, 173, 176, 186. 

Pythagoras, 41. 

Rahab; meaning? 77, 117, 175. 
rain, 124, 145, 150, 206, 218. 
Ram, family of, 131. 
ransom, 135, 143, 213, 217. 
raven, 151, 223. 
redeemer=vindicator ? 186. 
reed, skiffs of, 78, 174. 
rein, 125, 207. 
reins, sense of? 102, 187. 
remnant; meaning? 110, 193. 
Renan, Ernest, 174, 219+. 
rendings, of clouds, 117, 144. 
Rephaim; giants? 116, 198. 
right (hand) = south? 112, 193. 
right=what is legally due? 117, 

199, 154, 226. 
right=rectitude? 154, 173, 226. 
Righteousness, personified, 123, 

207. 
Tightness, 74, 173. 
Ritual, Egyptian, 209. 
rock-goats, 151, 224. 
rock's tooth, 153, 225. 
Rogers, R. W., 6; quoted, 186, 

205. 
Rollers=rolling waves, 148, 221. 
roots, of the feet! 88, 180. 
roots=bottom( ?) of the sea, 

144, 217. 
Royds, T. P., 4 (note), 172+. 
rush=papyrus? 75, 156, 173, 

227. 

Sabeans, 16, 59, 165. 
sack, sealed in a, 90, 181. 
Sahara Waltz (Carlyle's), 126, 

210. 
saints; meaning? 92, 182. 
sarcasm? 83, 116, 177, 198, 

220, 222. 
Sartor Resartus (Carlyle's), 

quoted, 166, 175. 
Satan, the, 15, 17, 18+. 
scales, as shields, 157, 228. 
scales, a coat of mail, 158, 228. 
scales, for weighing, 69, 170. 
Scatterers=: north winds? 145, 

218. 
scroll=indictment? 130, 211. 
sea-monster, 73, 172. 
Sea, personified, 117, 121, 198. 
sea's springs, 149, 221. 



INDEX 



241 



seal up, 114, 195. 
sealed, in a sack, 90, 181. 
sealeth = confirms? 134, 213. 
sealeth up, 145, 218. 
seal-ring clay, 148, 221. 
secure = free from care? 83, 17. 
Septuagint, 233, passim. 
Serpent swift, 117, 199. 
servants, of God, 66, 169. 
Shakespeare quoted, 14, 16, 24, 

25, 166, 168, 172, 170+. 
shade, pant for, 72, 171. 
Shades, giant, Rephaim, 116, 

198. 
shadow imagery, 75, 173. 
Shadow of Death, 63, 85, 96, 

114, 167+. 
Sheba, 71, 171. 
Shelley, P. B., 168. 
Sheol=Hades? the Underworld? 

72, 82, 90, 98, 106, 116, 

172+. 
Sheol, condition in? 91, 181. 
shield-bosses, 87, 179. 
shields=rows of scales? 157, 

228. 
short = curt, too brief? impa- 
tient? 105, 189. 
Short Studies, Froude's, 200. 
Shuhite, 61, 166. 
siege imagery, 101, 125+, 183+. 
Siegfried, C, 175, 184+, quoted 

187, 189+. 
signature; cruciform? 130, 211. 
Signs, Zodiac, 150, 223. 
since thy days ; meaning ? 148, 

221. 
sisters, highly respected, 57, 58, 

59, 165, 230. 
skiffs of reed, 78, 174. 
skin for skin, 61, 166. 
skin of the teeth; sense? 101, 

186. 
sky-forms, 150, 223. 
smite my cheek, 95, 183. 
snares, 99, 156, 227. 
Socrates, obedient to law, 22. 
sodomites, 142, 216. 
solid, like a casting? 83, 176. 
solutions of the mystery, 23 to 

39+. 
son of the bow, 158, 228. 
songs by night, 140, 215. 
sons of flame, 67, 169. 
sons of God, 57, 165. 
sons of pride, 120, 159, 202, 

229. 



Sophocles (Oedipus Coloneus), 

168. 
soul = breath, life, spirit? 79, 

100, 125, 178, 179+. 
soul dieth in youth, 142, 216. 
South=south wind, 146, 218. 
Southey, Robert, quoted, 222. 
speeches, sequence of, 196, 197, 

198, 200+. 
Spheres, Music of, 148, 220. 
spider's house, 75, 173. 
spirit=spectre? 66, 168. 
spirit=soul? 69, 168, 73+, 184. 
spittle, 97, 125, 184, 207. 
spread out the sky, 146, 218. 
stage directions, 209, 213, 219, 

229+. 
stars, head of the, 109, 192. 
Stars, Morning; meaning? 220. 
steps, tell the number, 130, 211. 
storming column? 95, 101. 125, 

183, 185+. 
strength^produce? 130, 211. 
strike, into the hand, 96, 184. 
substance; meaning? 58, 93, 

165. 
suffering, undeserved : mystery 1 

22+. 
sun, worship of, 210. 
swallow down riches, 104, 188. 
swallow my saliva, 73, 172. 
Swift, Jonathan; his custom, 

167. 
swift, on the waters' face, 115, 

195. 
sword, Behemoth's, 155, 227. 
symbolism? inference? 40. 

teeth, skin of; meaning? 101, 

186. 
tell his way, 108, 191. 
Tema, Temanite, 20, 65, 71, 

166. 
temple slaves of Baal, 216. 
Tennyson, Alfred, quoted, 35, 

189 4 223, 2g5. 
tent=pavilion? 108, 190. 
tent-cord, 67, 169. 
Terror, a, 66, 71, 153, 171, 225. 
Terrors, King of, 99, 185. 
terrors, 125, 208. 
testudo, military? 93, 182. 
Theriacon, Nicander's, 227. 
thorns, 131, 211. 
thorns = thorn hedge? 67. 
threshing-floor=threshed grain? 

152, 224. 



243 



INDEX 



threshing wain, 159, 229. 
thunder; 122, 144, 145, 153, 

224. 
thunder, neck clothed with? 153, 

224. 
Tiamat, a chaos dragon? 174. 
timbrel, lift to, 106, 189. 
times laid up; meaning? 113, 

194. 
Todtenbuch, Egyptian, 209. 
tokens; sense of? 108, 191. 
tongue's scourge, 68, 169. 
tooth, the rock's, 153, 225. 
touched, God's hand hath, 102, 

186. 
transposition of verses? 180, 

196+, 206, 226. 
treasuries of snow, 149, 222. 
tribunals, imagery of, 77, 78, 

79, 82+, 111, 193. 
tribunal, seat of (city gate), 67, 

122, 169, 204X. 
troglodytes, 124, 207. 
Truth Eternal, 85, 178. 
turning-point in the case? 160, 

229. 
Twelve Signs, of Zodiac, 150, 

223. 
twice, thrice = repeatedly ? 135, 

213. 
two prayers, Job's, 160, 229. 
Two Voices, Tennyson's, 168, 

181. 
twofold wisdom, 82, 176, 178. 

udders? full of milk, 107, 190. 
Umbreit, F. W. K., quoted, 182. 
Underworld (Sheol and x^bad- 

don), 203. 
Uriel, Milton's, 17 (note). 
Uz, land of, 13, 57, 165. 

vault of heaven, 109, 192. 
vile=mean, of small account, 

154, 225. 
Vindicator, 102, 186, 187. 
vineyards, the way of, 115, 196. 
Vergil, iEneid, Georgics, 41 

(note), 43, 170, 225. 
vision, God speaketh in, 134, 

213. 
vision (sight), in birds, 120, 

121, 154, 203, 225. 
vision, that of Eliphaz, 66, 168. 
visions, symptoms? 73, 172. 
Voice from the Whirlwind, 30, 

31+, 147, 219. 



Voice of External Nature? 32 to 

37. 
Vulgate, passim, (See Jerome, 

page 232). 



wake=bestir himself? 74, 173. 
watch, over tomb, 108, 191. 
Watcher=critical observer, 73, 

172. 
war, in heaven? 116, 197. 
war-horse, 153, 224. 
war-service, of man on earth, 

72, 90, 171, 181. 
waste, the=the desert, 71, 171. 
water-flood, the, 149, 222. 
Watson, R. A., 25. 
way:=of righteousness, 127, 211. 
way = traveler? 130, 211. 
ways, of destruction, 101, 125, 

185, 207. 
wealth ^prosperity? 106, 189. 
weepings trickling in mines, 

120, 203. 
Wetzstein, J. J., quoted, 166. 
what ? = who? of what sort? 106, 

189, 190. 
Whirlwind, Voice of, 30+, 

226+. 
whisper word, wha^ a! 117, 199. 
Whittier, J. G., quoted, 30, 49, 

202. 
widows wail, 119, 201. 
wife of Job, 18, 61, 166. 
wild ass, 82, 151, 176, 224. 
wild rock-goats, 151, 224. 
wild ox=Ca3sar's urus? 152, 

224. 
wilderness, food, 113, 195. 
Wind, East, 91, 119, 181, 201. 
wind, great, a whirlwind? 59, 

166, 173. 
wind, words of, 71, 74, 91, 94, 

173+. 
windy knowledge, 91, 181. 
wings = edges, borders? 148, 

221. 
wisdom, double folds to, 82, 

176. 
wisdom; man's? God's? 84, 

85, 122, 203. 
Wisdom; whence? 120, 121, 

204. 
Wisdom, as a concrete thing? 

204. 
wish=zwhat is wished, 128, 210. 



INDEX 243 

woman, born of, 88, 116, 180, Years of number, 96, 183. 

197. 

Wordsworth, W., quoted, 54. Zodiac Signs, 150, 223. 

worm; two kinds, 116, 197. Zophar, 21, 61, 160, 200, 



Xenophon's Anabasis, 166, 214, 
224. 



passim. 



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